


The Outer Paths

by yaodai



Category: Naruto, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, orochimaru making friends in space, this is not a crack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2018-12-29 21:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 63,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12093777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaodai/pseuds/yaodai
Summary: Orochimaru took a walk and somehow managed to launch himself into space.





	1. Chapter 1: Where One Does Simply Walk Into A Ha'tak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 18.08.18  
> Now edited and prettied up!  
> All thanks to N7JimJam, who's a true gem of a person!

Jack O'Neill woke with a groan and shook his head, pushing  himself up to a sitting position, back against the cold metal of their cell wall.

He was becoming used to this, Jack thought grimly.

More than that. Being kidnapped by the Goa'uld apparently had became a habit of his team at some point, a habit much, much worse than drinking and smoking and so on.

They all looked for a way out for a moment, patting the walls of their cell up and down, searching for a loose panel, something that would let them interfere with the power source, anything really. All Major Carter needed was a little, unimportant thing, a toothpick and she would McGuyver a way to escape in an instant, not to mention everything she could blow up along the way. She was good like that, probably the cleverest person Jack had ever known.

This time things didn't seem to be that easy; the Goa'uld finally seemed to be doing their homework and Tau’ri proofed the whole thing.

It meant that they would have to get out the hard way or just hope for trouble coming from somewhere else, so they could use the chaos to escape.

Jack didn't like to hope in situations like this but sometimes, there simply wasn't any choice. All he could do now was try to use Teal'c as an example - the big, muscular Jaffa warrior, once first prime of Apophis, now commonly known heretic and traitor was sitting with his legs crossed, face blank.

Jack felt an urge to wave his hand in front of the other man, just to check if Teal'c was still there. Jaffa didn't sleep, they only meditated to rest, he knew it well, but sometimes a man just wonders...

However this time it wasn't just his team he needed to worry about; when they were dragged in, half-conscious and still spasming in pain from the zat gun, the cell was already occupied.

Jack grimly looked at the corner furthest away from them, where a child was curled into a tiny ball, miserable and sniffling.

They all tried to talk to the little girl, but she was both unwilling to interact with them and unable to understand what they were saying; even Daniel failed at talking to her and that was his job.

“Major?”

“Colonel?” Samantha Carter turned towards him with a question in her blue eyes.

“Just wondering how long we're sitting here,” he said. “You have a much better internal clock than I do.”

And he didn't have his outer clock around the wrist because of course, anything that looked like technology, magic or was dangerously pointy was taken away.

Soon, Jack thought grimly, the Jaffa warriors would start taking away their belts and shoelaces.

“I would say about an hour, sir” Carter estimated, brushing away her fringe.

She was about to get a haircut, he thought. She never liked her hair to be too long, finding it too annoying on the offworld missions to be worthy all that effort.

“Only an hour, eh?”

“What are you thinking, sir?”

“The girl…” he muttered. “They’re not going to snake her, are they?”

“Goa’uld prefer adult hosts,” she quickly reassured him. “She could have been taken as a source of information though.”

“Information? That's a kid!”

“She's wearing a hoodie, sir. How many hoodies have you seen offworld?” Carter questioned. “The rest of her clothes is also of high quality. High enough to be made on a technologically advanced world.”

“Huh,” he said, blinking. That indeed could be a reason. Goa'uld preferred their slaves to be illiterate, dirty farmers who barely knew how to weave their own clothes. It was easier to be gods for people like that, without anyone smart and educated enough to challenge their reign.

All of the Stargate Command teams traveled through many worlds, seeking allies in their fight against the Goa'uld, new technology and knowledge. Usually they just found farmers. Jack could count civilizations more technologically advanced on one hand and none of those had the will - or the resources when it came to the Asgard - to bother with earthlings.

“Shame we can't really talk to her,” he muttered. “Though we already jumped once, so we can't even tell what her homeworld address is.”

And Jack doubted that a little girl could tell them which sevel symbols on the DHD led home. He wonder if she even now what a Stargate was; usually only the worlds left behind by the System Lord's were able to evolve and prosper. Or the ones without the Gate.

The last option would be the worst, because then, they would have no way of telling just where the girl was nabbed and how to take her back home.

Jack jumped, when the doors were unsealed with a thunderous noise. Stone-like slabs grit against each other, slowly revealing an opening.

Four Jaffa stood on the outside, armed with staff weapons and in heavy armor with helmets Jack couldn't quite name. As always, it looked like an animal, but what sort it was impossible to guess. Maybe something that didn't originate on Earth? 

He pushed himself off the ground, fully prepared to struggle, kick and punch but they weren't here for him or his team, not even to mock Teal'c. They had yet another prisoner.

A woman stood among them, high and calm.

This was... odd.

People usually reacted to being kidnapped by the Goa'uld in many ways, through usually it varied from blind panic to depression.

One of the Jaffa pushed her and she stepped forward, entering the cell. She was so pale, she looked more like a ghost than someone alive, eerie and silent as she walked. Jack couldn't hear a single footstep nor the fabric of her long, loose clothes shifting. And he should, he really should, because it was so quiet a pin drop would be deafening.

The newcomer’s face was carefully blank and the odd, yellow eyes were cold and definitely calculating, observing both the Jaffa and the cell doors shifting closed behind her.

Their new cellmate was wearing something that looked Eastern, maybe Japanese or some country nearby, though Jack decided to not try and name things.  His ex-wife used to painfully groan every time he was trying to name colors or pieces of her clothing and these were things he was supposedly familiar with.  It looked to be on the fancy side; the colors were very intense and the amount of little details on the fabric were almost overwhelming. Though it could be just her; no matter how long Jack looked, the woman still seemed to be otherworldly.

A bit shorter up close than she appeared to be standing far away, but she had that powerful aura that made her seem like a giant anyway.

She slowly turned her attention to the cell as the doors clicked shut behind her. These were hardly even doors, the Goa'uld had a weird obsession for hidden passages and entrances that looked just like walls, with the oddest mechanisms meant to open and close them. Sadly, this time pushing snake hieroglyphs and trying to rotate them didn't do a thing and after trying to do anything with all the other things that were grabbable Jack was all out of the ideas.

Jack was about to explain that no, the way out was currently unreachable from this side of the doors, but the woman looked straight at him and whatever thought was forming, it stopped dead in its track.

There were deep, strong purple lines framing her eyes, sharpening their shape, but that wasn't what made her gaze so predatory. Her pupils had a shape Jack never ever expected to see on a human. They were slitted and thin as needles, the deep yellow color of the iris only making it that much more intense.

Jack licked his lips, subconsciously expecting the eyes to flash with light and the deep, low voice to echo through their cell in that one of a kind, many people talking through one throat sort of way that screamed Goa'uld.

Though why exactly a bunch of Jaffa warriors would bring one of their gods to the jail and shut the doors, he had no clue. There’d been no bowing or anything at all.

She was also lacking the excessive golden jewelry the snakes were so fond of, even if she had much nicer clothes than the usual stranger they bumped in on the other side of the Stargate. Proof that not-farmers actually existed in this galaxy.

The probably-not-a-Goa'uld lady seemed to be interested in both the cell occupants and the cell itself, through she showed much more restraint than the eggheads Jack was familiar with usually did. Then again, when the usual nerd was looking at him, he didn't felt like he was cut open and analyzed on the spot.

It wasn't the most pleasant feeling, so Jack decided it was the time to break the awkward silence.

"Hi," he said, raising one hand slowly and giving a small wave. "How it's going?"

Her reply was to raise one thin eyebrow and tilting head  to the side.

"I'm Jack O'Neill, with two L's," he continued to blab. "And I'm not with the tin-cans, but that's sorta obvious.  So, where did you bump into these guys?"

The woman slowly shook her head and said something he couldn't understand at all.

Jack grimaced. He should have expected that.

There was this whole thing about how during travelling through the Stargate, the traveller was turned into a string of information and then spat out on the other side, information turning into flesh and bone yet again. The Gates that were active tended to add a little something too - a collection of the most commonly used words and phrases picked up from all the guys who went through it. It made communicating with the people from other planets much, much easier and problems only appeared when it came to more specialized words or when the Stargate was not used for a long period of time.

"So, no magical translation for us this time, eh?" Jack stretched and looked at Daniel.

He was the one who should thrive in this situation, after all. Finding a way to talk to people, telling them to stop being pissed off at them or reading the ancient graffiti off the walls and stuff. That was his thing.

Meanwhile the woman made a few steps to the side, still observing Jack and his team as if they were a fascinating expose.

Jack wondered if she would act the same if it was a cage with a tiger inside. The answer was: probably.  

Jack was about to poke Daniel to make him start doing his whole communication charade , when the woman suddenly stopped dead.

Yellow eyes widened at the sight of the child and the odd irises constricted to the point they looked like thin needles.

"Himawari?"

The little girl raised her head rapidly, however she stayed in her corner of the cell, eyeing the pale woman with eyes wide open.

Poor kid, Jack thought.

She was really scared out of her wits.

The woman got over the initial shock fairly quickly, her expression mellowing into something more soft and reassuring.

She slowly took a step forward, then another but stopped several feet away from the girl, giving the terrified child breathing space.

Well, they were from the same world and if the ship wasn't moving around too much, then there was a small chance that they knew each other, or at least it was the best Jack could come up with at the moment.

The woman knelt down, to be at the same eye-level with the girl and said something, putting a hand on her chest, but all Jack heard was chirping of an unfamiliar language.

"Daniel...?" Jack asked, because Daniel was the person to go to when people were speaking anything that wasn't English.

Daniel shushed him both with a hiss and a hand gesture, brow furrowed in concentration.

Whatever the woman said, it seemed to work.

The girl blinked, fear slipping out of her face while surprise took its place. she repeated something of whatever was told before.

The woman nodded with a smile.

"I think she said that she's someone's mom...?"

"You think?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"This is not one of the languages I'm fluent in," Daniel reminded him. "And even if I was, I would still be guessing. Language changes, because-"

"I know, I know!" Jack raised his hands up. "I remember Abydos and the blah-blah from there, thank you, don't need to repeat it!"

Daniels eyebrow twitched.

"You asked."

"For a translation!"

Jack wanted to bug his friend some more, because it was a thing that killed time neatly no matter what they were waiting for, but the foreign words stopped.

Instead, the woman was looking at them - at Daniel - curiously. Then her glance slipped towards Teal'c, eyes zeroing on the golden emblem on his forehead before returning to Jackson.

She said something, slower this time, carefully pronouncing each single world.

"Ah!" Daniel gasped, taken by surprise, but he quickly chirped something back, both hand already in motion.

For a first contact that was awfully fast, Jack decided. Not that he had anything against it. Quite the opposite, there wasn't anything worse than sitting in a space jail with people who he couldn't even communicate with.  

Well, technically he still couldn't, but Daniel seemed to have it covered.

"So, her name is Orochimaru, she’d never seen  anything like a Ha'tak before, so it drove her to investigate," Daniel explained, summarizing what he could. "She's familiar with the parents of this girl - Himawari - though I don't think it's a close friendship or anything like that."

"No, wait, she saw a huge, scary thing that wasn't there yesterday and then decided to check it out? Just like that?"

What the hell was with this lady? On the other hand, he would do the exact same thing. Did it, actually, on more than one occasion and almost died several times because of it. However Jack was also aware that most of other people had the common sense to turn on their heel and walk in the opposite direction to avoid trouble.

Daniel kept on talking, however it was mostly him running his mouth, while the woman asked a question now and then. Among the unfamiliar words, Jack noticed a few he actually knew - Goa'uld and Jaffa among them.

It looked like someone was getting the Galaxy for Dummies 101 course.

With a snicker, he shifted to sit more comfortably and simply decided to enjoy the show; even not understanding the language, the facial expressions were going to be fun.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, hello there!  
> I'm usually not explaining stuff in the notes, but I think there is a certain part of this fic that would raise all sort of questions. So I've decided to explain it.
> 
> As you've probably noticed, Orochimaru's relationship with gender is... well. It is canon that at least at one point during the series he was walking around in a female body and was totally fine with it. Not too long ago it was also confirmed in Boruto manga, that Orochimaru likes to change the way he looks, switching between more male-ish version of himself and the very feminine-like looks from Boruto (at least according to the images.)  
> So. Jack deciding that this new person is a woman? Not a joke. Orochimaru is wearing what he finds more comfortable at the moment. I doubt that he gives a crap about pronouns either - whatever is fine, as long as his name is recognized and used correctly.
> 
> I also like to believe that he's currently using Zetsu as his body- either the same one he took over during the final part of the manga (Hashirama cells were supposed to regenerate easily, so it should withstand Orochimaru's presence inside much better than any human) or one he cloned for himself. It's much easier this way than pissing everyone by hunting down a powerful shinobi time after time.
> 
> Um, yeah. This is what I'm rolling with when writing Orochimaru.
> 
> Edit: The canon enabled me more than I was expecting.


	2. Where Many Simply Walk Out Of A Ha’tak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 05.09.2018 - Edited with the help of amazing N7JimJam! Thank you so much!

**Chapter Two: Where Many Simply Walk Out Of A Ha’tak**  
  
  
  
  
  
Jack had no idea how much time has passed, but it was enough for him to become bored out of his mind.

  
Even Daniel wasn't talking anymore with his new friend sitting by the opposite wall with a faraway expression on her face, mouth moving slightly from time to time while the girl was dozing off next to her.   
  
Jack wasn't surprised that the woman needed some peace and quiet; after learning about just what sort we of aliens just kidnapped him Jack would need to sit in silence for a few moment too.

  
Still, she was taking it all surprisingly well.   
  
Then the silent moment was over; everything shook as thunderous sound travelled through the ship and echoed in the walls while the air itself seemed to be pushing him forward.   
  
"Shit!" Jack barely managed to shield his face before he smacked against the wall.   
  
He hated being on the ship when it jumped into hyperspace. He hated going into hyperspace period, because it was always a sign of things going to hell. Literally, sometimes. There were planets that were just like hell out there and they had blown up at least one of them.

  
As always, everyone else had much more grace than Jack; Teal'c looked like the sudden jump didn't bother him at all, Daniel managed to stay on his feet and Carter easily kept her balance. Even the alien lady had better luck than Jack.

  
She had her left hand up, while using the other one to keep Himawari behind her body. Her knees were bent in that "ready for action" stance, which also made the girl behind near invisible from where Jack was standing.   
  
All that loose fabric was actually useful for something, Jack noted. He counted himself among the surprised.   
  
And sort of creeped out. Those were good reflexes she had, disturbingly good for someone who didn't look the part.    
Whoever Orochimaru was, she wasn't afraid; instead, the gleam in her eyes told him that everything in front of her should be afraid.   
  
Daniel talked quickly, probably explaining what just had happened.

  
Orochimaru blinked and the danger in her eyes disappeared as if it never was there. She straightened up and furrowed her brow, asking for something.   
  
Daniel stopped talking for a moment, made a funny face and then started speaking again, repeating some words and waving his hands, drawing shapes in the air and doing all sorts of other stuff.

  
Someone was explaining what jumping into hyperspace was, Jack guessed. And then couldn't help himself as he dissolved into a snicker.   
  
For the first time the woman looked truly out of her depth. Eyes wide open, comprehension slowly dawning on her face, mouth slightly agape, in any different situation it would be comical. In this one, it was hitting a little too close to home to be funny to truly work.   
  
“It's not going to be long now, kids!” He declared out loud. It was better to get ready now; despite the fact that the distances between habitable planets were ridiculously large, Ha’taks flew very, very fast. They miscalculated the speed once and it almost ended tragically, no need to repeat past mistakes.   
  
Carter nodded almost immediately and Teal'c bowed slightly, before walking towards the entrance, placing himself on the side. Whoever was going to walk into the cell next, was going to have an unpleasant surprise.   
  
I should try my luck at the lottery, Jack decided when he heard footsteps outside the cell just a few moments later. Either that or the Jaffa were more predictable than clockwork.   
  
Jack glanced at the people in the cell, making sure the kid was as far away from the potential fight as was humanly possible.

  
The corner of the room, barely visible from behind Orochimaru was an acceptable spot, especially because the woman seemed to be perfectly aware of what was going on. Aware and calm, looking very much benign with that flowery shawl and outer robe with sleeves long enough to completely obscure her hands, she appeared to look small, almost non-threatening.   
  
Jack blinked and turned his attention back to the opening doors, leaving wondering about this change for later.   
  
Right now, he had a Jaffa to clock in the face.   
  
And ooh, there was something deeply satisfying in the way his fist connected with the face of the man on the other side of the doors, how the nose audibly crunched and how the blood gushed out of the nostrils right before he took another swing and added a kick that sent the Jaffa sprawling on the floor.   
  
Teal'c wasn't standing idly either; he’d rammed into the other Jaffa, pushing him into the last one from the group that came through. Snatching the staff weapon from his hands, in the same motion he smashed both of them in the head, sending them crashing into the wall.   
  
"Nice!" Jack commented, rubbing his knuckles. "Okay, kids, time to go on a field trip!"   
  
He let Teal'c take point, since he was the one who knew the most about what to find where on a Ha'tak and they didn't have time to spend on idly wandering around and hoping they went the right way. He walked right behind the Jaffa along with Orochimaru and the kid.  The very middle of the group was probably the safest place for them.   
  
Daniel followed on the opposite side to translate if it was needed, while Sam brought up  the rear and made sure every doorway that could be closed behind them was stuck shut.   
  
"Where do you think they put our stuff this time?" Jack asked, trying to find the most comfortable grip on the staff weapon. He knew how to use it to hit targets and Teal'c made sure that his team knew the basics of bashing people with metal sticks, but Jack would still feel much more comfortable with a handgun.   
  
"You think they kept it?" Daniel raised an eyebrow.   
  
"They always keep it," Jack replied with a shrug. While the Goa'uld acted like any technological advancement Earth civilisation managed to make were laughable, they also had the odd habit of hoarding everything they confiscated. Which was pretty convenient for the SG-1, but just plain weird from any other perspective. Just what they were planning to do with things they considered trash? Was littering a grave sin or something?   
  
"I might have some ideas," Teal'c declared.   
  
Jack grimaced. Plural meant there was more than one place, which meant that there would be trouble. One could only run around a flying fortress for so long before the enemy noticed something was up.   
  
They were just about to turn the corner when O'Neill choked as the collar of his shirt suddenly tightened around his neck like a noose as someone snagged it from behind.

  
Having no choice, Jack let himself be dragged into a small nook in the wall where, finally, Orochimaru let go of his collar.   
  
Jack spun around, wanting to demand just what she was thinking, but Orochimaru just put a finger to her mouth in a familiar gesture for silence.  Strangely, she used both of her hands to do so, while the rest of her fingers were kept folded in an odd manner.

  
Moments later the whole group followed their example and joined them in the odd nook, just as footsteps announced a group of Jaffa coming from around the corner their team had been heading towards.   
  
Jack sucked in a breath and got ready to fight, finger twitching on the activation button of his stolen staff weapon, exchanging a glance with Teal'c, calm but equally ready.   
But the Jaffa... passed right by them and marched away in the general direction of the cell block.   
  
Jack raised an eyebrow, looking after them and then even risking a peek around the corner to see that it wasn't some weird new trick, half-expecting to see a bunch of Jaffa just waiting for them to walk out of their hiding spot. There was no one there.   
  
"Nice," Jack said instead and put hand on Orochimaru's shoulder. He wasn't sure if she would catch the meaning behind the word, but the gesture should be familiar enough. Or at least he hoped so.   
  
Orochimaru merely smiled at him and lowered her hands.   
  
They continued walking, finding several rooms that looked like mildly uncomfortable crew quarters; they contained something that resembled very narrow and uncomfortably hard sort-of beds, but the place was lacking any sign of activity besides that. No knick-knacks, no personal items of any sort, not even the alien equivalent of a calendar with raunchy pictures.   
  
There were some other nondescript rooms, one of which was impressively wide - almost like someone had modified the inside of the Ha'tak for whatever reason.   
Jack just shrugged, interior decorating never was his thing and besides, he was here on a job that had already gone horribly wrong.   
  
"Bullseye!" Jack grinned happily, as they checked the next room.   
  
Their weapons were placed on the table, patiently waiting for them. Tools were scattered around them, like someone had been planning on taking their equipment apart.   
  
"Everything seems to be intact," Carter said. However her brow was furrowed and she looked at the table with unease.   
  
"What is it?" Jack asked, stuffing his pockets with all the things he needed. IDC device for signalling the base that it was actually them on the other side of the Gate, spare magazines, a grenade - a single one and he was sure he had had at least two of them, same as Carter, but now he was down to one lonely explosive - along with several other items like ration bars, chewing gum and a lighter.   
  
"I don't like this," she said. "Never before have the Goa'uld been interested in our technology."   
  
"Well, we’re just a bunch of dumb monkeys, why would they care about our toys?" Jack shrugged. "But we’ve managed to kick their assess a lot, so maybe now they're trying to figure out how we did it."   
  
"My point exactly, sir," Carter noded. "I just don't like the fact that they’re starting to learn. Remember the Tollans?"   
  
"Yep," he grimaced. They were a snobby race, completely full of themselves.  They held back from interfering in the fate of other races for fear that their technology would be misused by the ‘less advanced’ beings.  "They had that thingamajig that took out our weapons on the spot. And another one that turned off all the zats and stuff..."   
  
Still, the thought of the snake-faces finding a way around the guns and whatever else Earth managed to toss their way was an unpleasant one.   
  
"I am unfamiliar with the armor and symbols of this Goa'uld," Teal'c added to the conversation. "That means he was not influential enough for the others to pay any attention to him."   
  
"And now there's a big power vacuum and this new guy’s managed to put his hands on some toys," Jack nodded.   
  
"There are still others," Teal'c nodded. "So this new Goa'uld might be looking for advantages in unexpected places."   
  
Jack grimaced. It still didn't feel right.   
  
Looking around, he noticed Daniel, too occupied by stuffing his backpack with anything he could put his hands on to take part in the conversation.   
  
"Petty robbery, Danny?" he asked with a snicker.   
  
"We’ll never know what we can learn from this unless we take our time to research it," the archeologist replied without even looking his way. "And I've found some very interesting things, I think! For example, there was that book-"   
  
Jack groaned in exasperation and tuned the rambling out. He focused on their two new friends instead.   
  
Himawari was pale but also surprisingly calm for a kid tossed into a dangerous situation. She was sticking close to Orochimaru, which was both a natural thing to do and a pretty smart plan at the same time.

  
Orochimaru herself looked more curious than anything, the initial shock long gone. She was slowly walking around the room, looking over the hieroglyphs on the walls, items, tools and machines.

  
She appeared to also have a sixth sense, because she noticed him staring almost instantly. Tilting her head to the side, she sent him a questioning look.   
  
"I don't know what half of this shit is either," he said with a shrug. Then it was time to return to business. "Alright Danny, you had enough time for your scavenger hunt, it's time to blow this joint."   
  
"But Jack-"   
  
"Let's move," he said once more.   
  
Daniel murmured something mildly offensive under his breath, but obediently put the backpack on.   
  
Orochimaru chuckled, amused by their interactions, and then walked towards him, stopping only after getting uncomfortably close and reaching out to put her hand on the handle of his military knife.   
  
“Um,” Jack swallowed, mildly disturbed by her casual disregard for personal space. “You want the knife? Sure, you can take it!”   
  
He doubted that it would be a good weapon against an enemy wearing armor, but for someone who had nothing to defend themselves with… it would at the very least serve to ease her mind.

  
Orochimaru backed off and the knife disappeared in one of her sleeves. Jack hoped that she wouldn’t do anything stupid with it.   
  
The plan was to move around, hopefully avoiding all the Jaffa they could up until the ship got out of hyperspace and landed on some nice planet with a Stargate nearby.   
It wasn't the best plan, but it was still much better than trying to take over the ship, blowing it up or something equally crazy.

  
The universe seemed to be on his side today because the moment he opened mouth to announce what he had decided, the Ha'tak rocked under their feet.  The sudden push of gravity almost tossed him into the wall as the characteristic buzz of hyperspace travel died.   
  
"Well, that's convenient," he said. "Who's up for finding the exit doors?"   
  
"I think we should check if we can get our hands on the data crystals," Daniel said.   
  
"It would be of great help to learn about this Goa’uld" Teal'c added, looking at Jack in that way that made it near impossible to say no to him.   
  
It wasn't hostile or anything, it wasn't a forceful glare either. Teal'c just fully expected Jack to be the better man, to make the morally right decision when faced with a crossroad.

  
Just like now - the safest option would be to drag their new friends through the Stargate and call it a day, but that would make it almost impossible for them to return home. They would be safe and sound sure, not the first aliens that ended up living on Earth, but still.

  
Especially since he had such a nice excuse for not returning home instantly.   
  
"Well, kids, it's look like if we want to steal the hard drive, we're on a timer here!" he grinned cheerfully. "No way of telling when we jump right back into hyperspace!"   
  
Teal'c nodded, satisfied by Jack’s decision, while Daniel chirped quickly in that foreign language, hands gesturing wildly through the air.   
  
"This is going to be tricky, but I think I have a good guess at what we need from the console of the bridge," Carter said.   
  
"No chance to, I don't know, download it from one of the corridors?" Jack asked and added helpfully. "There are control crystals here and there too!"   
  
Major Carter just looked at him with that pity characteristic of any egghead forced to talk with someone particularly stupid.   
  
"I'm afraid it's doesn’t work like that, sir." she said diplomatically.   
  
"Of course it doesn't," he nodded with a heavy sigh.   
  
The bridge it was, then.   
  
Jack didn't like the plan, because the plan now forced them to walk into a room with only one entrance where the enemy had a very good chance of spotting them. Trapping and overwhelming with sheer numbers seemed like the most successful tactic to use against them and working around it was going to be difficult. Especially since they would be sitting ducks in there for as long as it took to copy whatever data Sam was after.   
  
"Let's go before I change my mind," he groaned. "Teal'c, what would piss the Jaffa off enough for them to leave their posts, preferably as far away from here as possible?"   
  
"I might have some ideas," the Jaffa warrior nodded. "Do you wish for me to cause a distraction?"   
  
Jack grimaced. Splitting the group was always the dumbest decision, yet that was what they were going to have to do.   
  
"Take Danny with you, I'll feel better with someone watching your back," Jack decided. "We're going to turn on the auto-destruct sequence so the Jaffa have something to do when we skedaddle, so..."   
  
"See you at the exit?" Daniel guessed.   
  
"See you at the exit," Jack nodded at him.   
  
He hoped that he was making the right decision instead of being talked into unnecessary heroics that would doom them all.   
  
Two more times Orochimaru proved to have either a sixth sense or simply the best hearing of them all, dragging the group into some shady corner or an empty room-slash-broom closet just in time to avoid a patrol coming their way.   
  
"That was a pretty big group," Jack commented uneasily, after he was sure it was safe to talk.   
  
"Teal'c and Daniel probably managed to create a distraction at this point," Carter said.   
  
"Well then, it wouldn't be nice to let their efforts go to waste, now would it?" Jack snickered and with a gesture commanded them to move forward.   
  
Orochimaru seemed to have a good grasp on hand signals, which was quite lucky. Without Daniel around, talking seemed to be rather troublesome.

  
They passed a corridor that seemed to lead to the control room, or so Jack guessed - it was usually located someplace similar. It was surprisingly difficult to hide things when your ship a fancy, flying pyramid.

  
That meant they were getting close to the bridge-   
  
Once again, Orochimaru pulled at the back of his shirt the moment Jack tried to move forward, choking him.   
  
Jack stepped backwards and glared.

  
Orochimaru completely ignored his stink-eye and put a finger to her mouth, before raising a fist up. Then she looked straight into his eyes and slowly raised a finger up and then another one and another.   
  
Jack nodded. It wasn't hard to guess what she was telling him. All he needed to do was to teach her the hand-sign for 'stop' and they would be fine and dandy.

  
Orochimaru nodded with approval, glad that she managed to get through to him and furrowed her brow. She raised two more fingers, glanced again at Jack and bent the last two of her fingers.   
  
Jack grimaced and raised his own hands with seven fingers up, just to confirm.   
  
Ugh, he thought when Orochimaru nodded. The odds weren't pretty and the Jaffa didn't sound like they were moving from their post anytime soon.   
Not to mention, they were on the clock here.   
  
Jack glanced at Carter, who mouthed a soundless question at him. He looked back, where Himawari was.

  
This was going to get ugly, but telling the girl to go behind the corner on her own while they went and made a lot of alarming noise seemed like a really bad idea that would end in a nasty hostage situation.

  
If they had to do it, they needed to do it quickly.   
  
He gestured at Orochimaru to stay put where she was. She quirked an eyebrow at him, but nodded.   
  
Good, Jack thought. He wanted to have someone watching over Himawari and there was also that saying about how you are not supposed to bring a knife into a gunfight.   
  
Carter looked at him and slowly reached for the safety on her gun, a grim but determined expression on her face.

  
They moved in unison, a well oiled machine created by more than just years of training.  They were announced by the thunderous roar of gunfire and the shrieking of bullets hitting metal.   
  
Someone screamed, another shouted a cursed, half of the word getting lost in the sound of the blasts. There was a Jaffa lying on the ground surrounded by the wide marks of staff weapon fire.  The air tasted like smoke and iron. Another one moved towards them only to fall down after only a few steps.   
  
Jack's teeth hurt from gritting them, the ringing in his ears became deafening, his arms felt numb from all the shooting, but he didn't stop until his magazine was empty and then it was a simple case of reloading and he could start counting again. Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen and a body on the ground, twelve, eleven, duckduckduck!, a spike of pain shot through Jack as he crashed into the wall because the only other option was getting hit.   
  
Ten and nine went when Carter unleashed hell, somehow knowing just where to damage the wall to unleash a rain of hazardous sparks on the Jaffa, blinding them and letting eight and seven go through.   
  
There was dust and smoke in the air now and bits and pieces of broken, sparking wires were spilling from the walls. Jack narrowed his eyes, but it did little to relieve his  stinging and watering eyes. At least his field of vision wasn't the only one severely obstructed.   
  
Jack hoped that the situation would stall, forcing both groups to wait the dust out, only to see three men jump out of it just a few feet away. With a curse on his lips, Jack turned around and pointed his gun at the closest opponent, only to have it smashed out of his hand with a staff weapon. He had no choice but to dive under the alien weapon after his pistol, leaving Carter to deal with the remaining enemies.   
  
She managed to get a clear shot in the side of the head of the nearest one, sending him into the wall and probably killing him before he even met the hard surface.   
  
Instantly, Carter moved her hand and pointed the gun at the next one. He didn't give her the time to pull the trigger. A shot from his weapon forced Carter to dodge or risk having her hand blasted off. She didn't have time to regain her balance either; the tip of the staff weapon was still shining with tiny bolts of discharge when the Jaffa took a wide swing aiming at her head.   
  
Carten dropped on the ground and then immediately rolled away, so she could dodge another hit of the staff. In one fluid motion, she got up to a kneeling position, gun already aimed and held steady in both hands. A split second later a gunshot echoed through the corridors, quickly followed by another two and an empty click.   
The Jaffa stopped dead in his tracks.  Slowly, his knees bent and he fell forward.   
  
It was enough of an opportunity for the last one to rush forward, safe from the bullets since both of them were fumbling with their spare magazines, the familiar cool plastic and metal traitorously slippery.   
  
Jack turned, heart hammering in his chest and bile rising in his throat, terrified because that bastard managed to get past by him and Carter where the child and a woman armed only with a knife hid.  He knew all too well that Jaffa armor was made to withstand blasts from staff weapons. A blade wouldn't even scratch the blasted thing, so...   
  
He expected to see something terrifying, and there was indeed a Jaffa pointing his weapon at a helpless victim.   
  
Only Orochimaru fearlessly batted the weapon to the side right before it went off, sending the blast into the wall with an almost deafening noise and then eating up the distance between her and the Jaffa warrior in a swoop of pinks, grey and lavender, quick and eerily elegant in her movements. With one hand, she pushed the Jaffa's head to the side. Jack barely had a split of second to register the blade gleaming in the other before Orochimaru, seemingly effortlessly, shoved it right where the helmet met the collar.   
  
The Jaffa didn't even make a noise as she lowered him on the ground, already dead.   
  
Golden eyes looked straight at Jack, as she pulled the knife out and once again made it disappear without a trace in one of her sleeves.   
  
Whoever the woman was, she was able to breeze her way through hand to hand combat with a Jaffa warrior.

  
According to Teal'c and Jack's very own collection of bruises, Jaffa warriors were always well trained and their longer than natural lives gave them all the time they needed to hone their skills.   
  
"Nice," Jack nodded with approval, then looked at Himawari with worry.   
  
This wasn't a sight a little girl was supposed to be exposed to, not in the slightest.   
As to be expected, Himawari looked scared, but she visibly relaxed as soon as the fighting died down.   
  
This, Jack decided, still staring at the pale child, was not normal. But this was also something he didn't have time to think about, so he forced himself to shove the thoughts someplace deep in his brain.   
  
Orochimaru straightened up and carefully put a hand on Himawari's shoulder, asking something quietly - or maybe just explaining things, Jack wasn't sure because the only response from the girl was a solemn nod of her head. The woman talked some more, her low, raspy voice so quiet Jack could barely tell that she was speaking. Himawari listened with attention, eyes shining with an odd sort of determination.   
  
Jack sighed. She was probably asking the girl to hold up some more - and wasn't it a difficult thing to ask for. She was just a few feet away from a gunfight, there were corpses on the ground and someone had been stabbed right in front of her. To tell the truth, it felt disturbing that the little girl was taking it all so well.   
  
He closed his eyes; it was yet another thing to leave for a time when there was a beer can in his hand and rest of the pack at his feet, waiting for their turn.   
  
“Jack,” suddenly hearing his name like that made him jump. Or maybe it was just the fact that Orochimaru was right next to him, once again shamelessly invading his personal space.   
  
Surprisingly enough, she managed to not butcher his name, through it sounded very, well, alien coming from her.   
  
“What is is?” Jack asked, stepping away to have some space for moving his shoulders and things like breathing.   
  
Orochimaru pointed at the doors to the bridge and then looked up into his eyes, making sure that he followed. She raised three fingers.   
  
Jack nodded and patted her on the shoulder, earning himself a hilariously weirded out look.   
  
“Major, can you do the honors and open the doors?” He asked, making sure that his pistol was ready to action. He had only one more spare magazine, but if Orochimaru was right - he truly hoped she was - the odds were looking in their favor.   
  
“On it,” Carter nodded.   
  
The Jaffa were aware that they were right on the outside, after all this noise it would be hard not to notice them. All they could do was either set up a trap and let Jack and his team walk right into it or block the door by blasting the mechanism with a zat gun and wait for a rescue.   
This group must have been stupidly prideful, because they decided to go with the first option.   
  
The moment the doors started to open, Jack grabbed the single grenade he had and pulled out the pin.

  
He tossed it low on the ground; there was no need to let it do anything but slowly roll deep into the room.   
  
“Fire in the hole!” he announced, ducking away from the doors.   
  
An explosion roared, pushing a cloud of smoke and shrapnel out of the room.   
  
“In!” Jack shouted and Carter once again moved along with him, gun pointed forward, eyes looking for the shadows in the smoke.   
  
The moment he noticed any movement, Jack pulled the trigger, not even expecting to hear a body dropping onto the ground; at this point his ears were ringing and there was that annoying, high-pitched noise inside his head, tuning everything else out.

  
There were a series of flashes on his side that told him Carter had done the exact same thing. Now it was a simple case of finding cover and waiting for the dust to set-   
  
From the corner of his eye, Jack noticed a flash of red light and turned around only to stare right into the end of an activated staff weapon right as a blast was forming.

  
He gasped and started to swing his gun around, all too aware that even if he somehow manage to point his weapon at the target and pull the trigger it would still be too late-   
  
There was a powerful force pulling his jacket, strong enough to make the fabric rip at the seam, and then Jack found himself flying through the air like a ragdoll, eyes were still glued to the blast bolt blossoming at the tip of the staff weapon.

  
The red shot of energy - or plasma or whatever the hell it was - cut through the air with a hungry roar, heading right where Jack had stood just a moment ago, while the Jaffa stopped dead because there was a knife in his eye socket.   
  
Jack blinked, not quite comprehending what just had happened, while the alien warrior slowly dropped down on the ground.   
  
Orochimaru let go of his jacket, looking as calm as she ever did, not a single hair out of place. She pointed at the inside of the room and then demonstrated a closed fist with the sweetest disturbing smile Jack ever saw and passed him by with a swoosh of her robes.   
She stopped next to Himawari and patted the girl on the head, saying something to her.   
  
“I think that means we're clear,” he muttered and stepped into the room, followed quickly by the rest of the group.   
  
While he was making sure that they were actually safe - and all the Jaffa warriors were indeed dead and not only waiting for an opportunity to strike - Carter managed to glue herself to the console.  It was a complicated looking machine, shining with gold and jewel-like buttons and a desk-sized thing with a round, red half-orb the size of a basketball that was somehow used to pilot the ship. She quickly found a way to shut the doors behind them.

  
It didn’t solve all of their problems, but at the very least it gave them a moment to breathe and time for Carter to work her magic. Currently, she was tearing the front of the console away, revealing rows upon rows of thin, colorful crystals.   
  
Jack placed himself next to the doors, gun in hand and a staff weapon against the wall behind him as backup for when he ran out of bullets.   
With a quirk of his eyebrows, he invited Orochimaru to take up a position on the opposite side; she had more than proved that she could handle herself in a fight and he couldn't afford to be too picky.

  
She smiled at him and then exchanged a few words with Himawari.   
  
The girl reluctantly let go of her hand and jogged towards Carter to disappear behind the console the Major was working on.   
  
Good, Jack thought as Orochimaru settled down by the doors, head slightly tilted and eyes narrowed in concentration.

  
If her hearing was as good as Jack guessed it was, then she should be able to pinpoint any approaching danger and give them a chance to prepare before hell broke loose, which was probably as good as things could get for them right now.   
  
"How long is it going to take?"   
  
"I'm working on it, sir!" Carter replied, not even turning to look at him. "However this is still alien technology that we are only vaguely familiar with and most of what I’m doing is guesswork and vague memories from Jolinar!"   
  
Ah, Jolinar. The not-evil snake that once got into her skull and then died, leaving behind a whole new set of troubles and an alliance with the other not entirely evil snakes. Jack wasn't very fond of the Tok'Ra and they weren't doing much to change his opinion about them, too used to fighting from the shadows to even consider any other method of fighting against the Goa'uld.   
  
Time seemed to be crawling forward really slowly, although that was probably because Jack was waiting for bad things to start happening any moment.

  
There wasn't anything else for him to do besides remain glued to his post with a hand on his gun.   
  
Well, there was Orochimaru.

  
Jack had no idea who she was, but he was becoming more and more certain that she had military experience. No civilian would accept and adapt to a situation like this one as quickly as she had. Jack very much doubted that there were many civilians who could stab someone, even an enemy that tried to kill them, in the throat like she did only a few moments ago.

  
Not that he was going to bitch about it. He’d shot a lot of people today and it would be very hypocritical of him to criticize someone else for the same thing. Especially since a military trained ally was a godsend in a situation like this one.   
  
In the bright light, she still looked rather other-worldly; much, much more so than the Jaffa, who could look just like people from Earth after a simple change of clothing.

  
Orochimaru was... white. Chalk-white, and it wasn’t an optical illusion like he thought back in the dimly lighted cell. It didn't look like make-up either, because he could see her collarbone at this angle and it was also very much white. He doubted that many people would go through the trouble to paint their chest just to make sure that any bit of flesh peeking through their clothes fit their aesthetic.

  
Jack idly wondered if wherever they came from, it was a normal skin color. Himawari was more... flesh-colored, but didn't act like anything about Orochimaru was striking her as particularly weird.

  
Not that he could ask about it anyway.   
  
"I think I know what we need to take," Carter said from over the console.   
  
"That's good!" Jack nodded.   
  
"However, I'm afraid we don't have anything to access the data with."   
  
"We'll ask the Tok'Ra?" he said with a shrug. The buggers had to do them a favor from time to time and reading a space floppy disk was something basic enough that not even they could find a reason to be annoyed about it.   
There was an explosion somewhere deep in the ship, powerful enough to make the walls around them vibrate.   
  
"I think that's our cue!"   
  
"I'm on it!" Carter quickly did something that made the speakers on the ship roar in a harsh, unpleasant language.   
  
Jack grimaced, because the noise level suddenly went from dead silence to almost painfully loud. And because these words, he knew. Numbers. Or rather, a countdown.   
  
"Are you planning on blowing up the ship?" he asked.   
  
"I'm hoping they have their priorities right," she replied.   
  
"Let's just get out of here," Jack groaned.   
  
He had certain opinions about hoping that people were smart enough and that they had their priorities in the right order but mentioning it now would be unhelpful.   
  
"The closest Transportation Ring should be near the armory," Carter said.   
  
"Makes sense," Jack nodded.   
  
One would probably want to arm his army right before sending it out to murder people.   
  
"You think we'll be able to ring all the way to the outside?"   
  
"With a bit of tweaking," Carter nodded. "That's actually easy, since the Jaffa need to operate it on daily basis."   
  
And the Jaffa were mostly illiterate, because the Goa'uld didn't like their slaves to be too smart, be it the army or the simple people cruelly exploited to provide them with slave labor.   
  
"Lead the way," Jack ordered.   
  
Carter nodded and took point, while Jack gestured for Orochimaru to join him at the front; the woman had proved that she had the best reflexes of them all and was great at spotting the enemy before the enemy spotted them.

  
At least this time the Jaffa were occupied with matters much more serious than escaped prisoners, so they weren't paying much attention to what was going on around them. It made hiding and avoiding them a much easier task.   
  
"One more turn!" Carter warned them, as they moved through the long, complicated labyrinth.   
  
"Let's not barge in, kids!" Jack warned them. Well, he warned Carter, since Orochimaru could only guess what he was babbling about. "Friendly fire is the last thing we need!"   
  
"Colonel, are you sure that Daniel and Teal'c will use the same Rings as we are going to?"   
  
"It's the closest from where we were and Teal'c doesn't believe in splitting the party for too long!"   
  
Or rather, he didn’t believe that the rest of the team would keep themselves from trouble if he was away for too long.

  
Also, they were just plain lucky from time to time, because Jack spotted Daniel's head peeking from the entrance of the doors they were heading towards.   
  
"Took you long enough!" Daniel shouted at him.   
  
"Just get in the damn Rings!" Jack barked back at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was expecting this chapter to take like 3k words or so.  
> We're at 6k. Close enough...
> 
> Also, I'm, uh, considering adding a wee bit of slash to this particular fic? I mean, many of my readers have a lot of slash in their bookmarks anyway, including stuff with M and E rating, so changing the rating here wouldn't be that troublesome, I think.
> 
> There's also an option for keeping this fic as it is - purely gen and without any pairing besides vague hints at stuff and add a separate part for this story, where I can shamelessly experiment with slash. It would be a bit more troublesome for me and probably for the readers too, but the innocent souls will be able to avoid anything too weird for their tastes without trouble.
> 
> So, I'm asking before I even get anywhere close to the potential porn. Which option sounds better?


	3. Chapter 3: Where A Stroll Through The Woods Is Taken

Chapter Three: Where A Stroll Through The Woods Is Taken

 

Ruins, Jack decided, meant all sort of good things, at least in their situation.

It meant that at some point there was a city here, a civilization. A civilization, even a long dead one, meant that the people had to get here somehow and the only logical way was the Stargate. Transporting enough people to create an once-thriving society via Ha'Tak simply didn't make any sense; it was simply too much of a bother when there were people to enslave someplace else. 

That's why, after dashing into the woods not far from the spaceship - some of the Jaffa decided that chasing escaped prisoners was a better idea than staying on the spaceship that was about to blow up - they tried to find any signs of a civilization.   
Jack never thought that he would be so happy to see a brick. 

It was just a simple little thing, already falling apart and covered in moss and dirt, but it was there, telling tales of people living on this planet at some point and they were walking for what appeared to be hours. 

The Ha'Tak didn't explode, so in the worst case scenario, they would be forced to return and somehow find a way to take over the blasted thing. Dragging a kid into a gunfight was the last thing Jack wanted to do.

The girl was already handling this situation much better than he expected. She wasn't even slowing them down, by some miracle managing to keep a pace of an adult and for some time too. The moment she started slowing down, Orochimaru simply picked her up and continued walking like the additional weight was noting. 

Daniel said something to her, probably proposing switching in carrying the girl, but the answer included a baffled chuckle and a headshake.

Jack decided to let her do as she pleased, curious just how long it will take for her to announce defeat and ask for help.

When they finally walked into something, that once was a settlement -  buildings both empty and broken, bits and pieces of walls reaching up and piles of debris, chunks of ceramics and glass, iron tools rotten red to their very core and so on - Jack had to wipe sweat from his forehead, while Orochimaru appeared to be just fine. 

Damn, he thought, he was getting old. 

Instead of jealously glaring at the woman, he decided to look around, despite the fact that the image of a city - village, really - abandoned ages ago wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. Perks of having an archaeologist on the team.  
What the picture was missing, however, were the Gates themselves.

"Um, T?" Jack carefully asked. "Any idea where these people put their big, round thing?"

Teal'c looked left, then he looked right and finally, his gaze set on Jack. 

"I believe we are in the ruins of the city of Ur, on the territory that once belonged to Ra," he said.

Jack blinked.

So, a familiar ground. Good, good. Ra's territory was also a good news, since Ra was very dead for years... or a very bad news, because everybody wanted to call dibs on the stuff that he left behind. 

"Okay," he said. "So were people of Ur put their round, spinny thing?"

"They believe living away from the Stargate would protect them," Teal'c explained.

An uncomfortable silence followed his words.  
It made a certain amount of sense, to move away from the thing the oppressors used to travel around the galaxy. If they were not nearby, then perhaps, the Jaffa warriors would deem them to be long gone and just leave.  
Only, they didn't. 

"You are supposed to laugh now," Teal'c added.

"I am?" Jack blinked, completely taken aback by the words. "Why?"

"The history of people of Ur is told as a joke among the Jaffa," he told him. "They've tried to outrun the sun. It cannot be done."

Jack swallowed the urge to protest, argue and accept the challenge. He had no time for silly things like that, even if annihilation of an entire civilization just because they tried to hide away was making him slightly sick to the stomach.

"I can see that," Jack decided to stick with the snark. "So, there's a big of walking until we're at the Stargate?"

"We're out of time anyway, sir. We will need much more time than usual at the Stargate, just for the SGC to confirm that it's really us, even after sending the IDC," Carter said with furrowed brow. "And we don't have any guarantee that we will be alone at the gate-site."

All too true. When they've accidentally landed themselves on a huge Ha'Tak of Apophis, they've seen first-hand that the snakes had a communication devices capable of connecting even with light years between them. And in real-time. Carter spend a lot of words cursing about the whole thing and then even more trying to explain why something like that was crazy, finalizing it with a thick report filled with theories and advanced math that only served as a proof that they were still far, far beyond the technologically advanced folk. 

"But this guy we're dealing with? He's  an unknown," Jack mused. "Means that he wasn't important enough to be considered dangerous with anyone with an army, which could also mean that he doesn't have a big army of his own."

Sure, he could recruit from among the Ra's followers once they've noticed that they became god-less. However even brainwashed into believing that a snake-like parasite was an actual god, the Jaffa were not exactly stupid as a whole and probably joined with someone who had a certain reputation, just ot make sure their families were somewhat protected from armies of other wanna-be gods. Only a few would go with the unknown. 

"So, there's a big chance that he has no more Jaffa to toss our way," Jack finished his thought. 

Sure, putting their lives on line for a chance would be stupid, but they will never know until they actually go and check. Not that there was any choice in this matter anyway.

"So, T, Which way?"

"We should follow the path of destruction," Teal'c once again murdered the good mood Jack was so desperately trying to keep up. "When Ra's army came, they wanted to be heard."

Daniel grimaced as if he just tasted something particularly bitter and made a disapproving noise. It look like he shared Jack's opinion on that matters.

"So, I'm going to talk with Orochimaru for a bit," he said.

Jack nodded.

"We're going to look around, to find which way to go," he said and then decided to add the warning, because it was Daniel who was he talking to. "Don't get out of my sight, we're probably going to be followed. Or are."

"I'm not that stupid!"

Jack raised an eyebrow.  
Daniel grunted something offensive under his breath and turned around on his heel.   
Jack snickered, observing as the other man stomped on the ground, beating the distance between them and the woman.

And damn, Orochimaru looked more like a ghost than a real person, chalk-white skin seemingly more unnatural in the natural light than surrounded by the artificial whatever the Jaffa were using to see in the Ha'Taks.   
For the amount of sneaking around, running and fighting they did in the last several hours, she also appeared to be fresh like a cucumber, no hair out of place, not anything.  
While Daniel wandered off to explain just what was going on, Jack decided to  look around. 

He had much more experience than he even wanted to have when it came to recreating battles in his mind, he saw his fair share of fights too. However tracking something that happened recently and hoping to spot the footprints from ages ago were completely different things. The first sort of search didn't include all these trees, weeds and moss that covered everything. And that was just the beginning - the building were barely standing, sometimes kept together only because roots were wrapped tightly around the stones.

While he was examining the broken stones that seemed to have a faded burnt marks around the crack, he noticed that the kid was cheerfully jogging round from one spot to another, pointing at things and chirping enthusiastically.

She was followed by Orochimaru, who was asking a question or two, but otherwise let the girl explore, and by Daniel who looked fairly disturbed.

"I'll bite," he muttered to Danny when the man approached him, expression still perturbed. "What's up?"

"The girl is trying to tell how the battle went," Daniel said carefully, eyes following the movement.

"...okay?" Jack furrowed his brow slightly. 

While it was a slightly disturbing, it was also a way to have the kid feel useful and occupied. The little girl seemed to be enjoying her mildly morbid task quite a lot, fear and worries temporarily forgotten.

"She... does that with a disturbing amount of accuracy," Daniel continued. "Also, Orochimaru asked her if her parents started to teach her uh... reading the battlefield? Something like that, I don't know the right word for it."

"That's an odd thing to teach children," Jack was forced to agree.

"We don't know their culture at all, but the way they're acting about the whole thing..." Daniel shook his head. "I hate drawing conclusion so early, but this looks like a culture fairly familiar with war."

"So are we," Jack replied with a small shrug, mostly for Daniel's sake. He needed the archaeologist to stay calm and to do his job. Nervous people were prone to mistakes and there was no time for these right now; soon enough, the Jaffa would show up at some point to recapture them and Jack would really hate to go back to that blasted Ha'Tak. One kidnapping per month was where he was drawing the line. 

"This implied that their world was indeed left alone long enough for different nations to be founded," Daniel continued talking, pushing the glasses up his nose, words coming out a bit quicker in his excitement. "This is probably their first contact with the Goa'Uld since centuries... or ever!"

Which was quite a big find, but also could mean that there was a chance Orochimaru and Himawari came from a world with no Stargate. If this was the truth, then getting them home would become  much trickier.

"We don't know yet how well advanced they were, so maybe it's still mostly combat," Daniel mused. "Which would made teaching children things like that make sense, though it is still disturbing."

"Danny, there are child soldiers on Earth too," Jack grunted. 

He hated it, he couldn't do anything about it, there was no need of criticizing people from other planets by teaching their kids how to survive.  
Maybe it was a matter of perspective - Himawari was much shorter than them, so she could see better things that were obscured by bushes, hidden in crooks and behind the moss covered rubble. 

Jack sighed. He was not going to demand for the girl to stop her activity just because he was feeling a bit uneasy because of it. Especially since the kid appeared to be re-energized by helping and succeeding at her task definitely worked wonders for her morale.   
Orochimaru was following the girl with a small smile plastered to her lips, commenting on and asking questions, making it all look more like a game than tracking.

“This doesn’t make sense!” Daniel groaned next to him, his hands flying in frustration through the air.

“What doesn’t make sense?” Jack asked, one eyebrow raised. 

“This!” Daniel waved his hands some more, showing Jack… something. “The marks are everywhere, coming from the all sides, but we know that the Jaffa had to come from one direction and-!”

Jack hummed. He had his own theory about what had happened here, however he wanted to hear the same conclusion coming out from someone else. Orochimaru seemed to have some military experience, though Jack would hate to expect certain things other just because she fit with his mental image of what soldiers were.  
He needed something more, just to confirm things.

“Maybe you should talk to Orochimaru?” he proposed instead. “She and Himawari seem to be doing a great job at finding their way around here.”

Daniel shrugged and headed towards the woman and Jack followed him, curious to see how the conversation would go.

“Are Goa’Uld fond of fear tactics…?” Daniel murmured under his nose, after Orochimaru asked something, probably roughly translating her words.

Jack didn’t need to listen to Daniel to know the answer; yes, they very very fond of it. 

“...an example?” Daniel said after a moment. “That’s a quite dark picture…”

A dark picture it was indeed and it looked like Orochimaru was able to see it as clearly as Jack did.   
The villagers that decided to risk it all and moved away from the Stargate were given a few years, maybe even several, to set in, start living, believing that their little gambit worked.  
Then the Jaffa returned. One group entered the world quietly and surrounded the village, staying in hiding up until the main forces arrived.  
When people noticed the Jaffa marching their way, they panicked and tried to run and hide only to discover that there was nowhere else to go.   
Then, they died.  
A few survivors were probably left for the sole purpose of letting them and the story of fear and destruction scatter around the galaxy.

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. 

"We shouldn't stay here for too long," he muttered. "You think we will find some traces further away from the village?"

"It should be possible," Orochimaru said with a nod, after Daniel translated the question.

"Pretty confident, aren't you?"

Orochimaru merely smiled at him and walked away.

"So, anyone got a quarter?" Jack looked at his team. "Or we just vote if we go around this place clockwise or no?"

Carter patted her pockets at then shrugged with an apologizing expression on her face, while Teal'c didn't even move. As always, he simply kept looking at Jack, waiting.

Daniel hummed. 

"We might have some luck if we head east," he said slowly. 

"Towards the sunrise, huh?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "You sure about it? These guys wanted out and as far away from Ra as it was possible."

"Well, when you run away from something, it's nice to know where that thing is, right?" Daniel replied. "They relate sun to danger. Looking east and watching for the danger where the sun rises... It seems like a thing they would do."

"If you say so," Jack muttered.

Once upon a time, people on Earth did something similar, only instead of just leaving, they buried the gate under a generous amount of stone, carving in all sorts of warnings and 'do not touch' drawings.   
It was only dumb luck that Ra felt too lazy to deal with it.

Jack looked up, at the sky. Using his compass for anything than making his own step-map was not making any sense, since it was a completely different planet and so the magnetic field was also different.   
It wasn't dark quite yet, but the sun was slowly but surely getting lower. That meant, there was a shift in their priorities; the Gates weren't going anywhere and it would be difficult to find them during the night. And even if they tried, their flashlights would turn them into a very obvious targets.

The ruins were obviously a bad place to  set the camp, not only the Jaffa were more than probably going to check this place out, but the buildings were unstable and whatever was still standing, could be a lair of something Jack really didn't want to meet in the middle of the night.  
As the sun was setting, the air got noticeably cooler.

Just their luck to go camping at this season, Jack thought, observing as thin, visible mist was appearing every time he breathed out.   
It was always an annoying feeling to be hot and cold at the same time, but it couldn't be helped; walking through the woods that spend the past few centuries on growing however they wished was proving to be a challenge and the air had a bite to it that was setting him on edge.  
Just how low the temperature was going to get?

Certainly not freezing, Jack tried to comfort himself.  
There were trees and bushes with leaves and not needles creating this twisted maze of mother nature and they were still mostly green, here and there with fruits peeking from under the leaves, not quite ripe yet. So, they were probably safe from turning into popsicles.

Carter was marching right next to him, flushed but still appearing to be bearing with the situation better than he did.

Jack grimaced and rubbed at his knee as he was stepping over a particularly tangled root. It certainly didn't agree with the cold, humid air and was protesting with pangs of sharp, needle-like pain showing now and then. Nothing new and Jack was used to  it by now, but still, if there was a chance to get rid of the annoyance, he definitely would. 

This time Teal'c was in the rear, looking like he was personally offended by mother nature. then again, it could be just that particular thin branch that Daniel pushed to the side to walk through. It slipped out of his hand and smacked the big Jaffa in the face. 

"Whoops!" Daniel gasped. "I'm so sorry!"

"I am well, DanielJackson" Teal'c declared and pushed the leaves away from his face.

Jack could swear that he saw a grimace of distaste, even if it was a blink-and-you-miss-it sort of a moment. 

Baffled, Jack shook his head and looked at Orochimaru and Himawari.

The girl had the flowery shawl wrapped around her neck and arms, shielding her from the chilly air and was hugging tightly Orochimaru - she looked almost like a koala bear - who was carrying her.  
And who didn't seem to be minding marching through the woods at all. Which was weird, because carrying around additional weight and keeping up with the pace of people who didn't was supposed to take it's toll.   
Yet there she was, looking like she found this stroll through the woods to be pleasant. More than that, her clothes looked pristine, like all the branches and dirt weren't able to touch those long, loose, light-colored robes of hers. 

"Danny?" Jack looked back at the archaeologist. "Can you ask them how they are doing?"

Jack knew that some people were just plain good at looking not bothered even if they were dying of exhaustion. Carter was just like that when it came to science and he had to drag Daniel away from his old stones and ancient thingamajigs more than once too.

Orochimaru declared, that she was doing just fine.

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"So, there's a lot of forests in your world?" Daniel asked, generously translating for te rest of the team.

"Yes, especially in the place where I was born."

Himawari enthusiastically agreed.

Well, that explained at least partially why she was moving around with such ease, while Jack was tripping over things.

"Seen anyplace good enough to set up a camp?" he asked. Since there was an expert on hand, it would be stupid to not use the available knowledge.

Orochimaru hummed and looked around, then pointed in seemingly random direction with her free hand. 

 

"There?" Daniel blinked. "Why there?"

The explanation involved a tree, an angle and an utter loss on Daniel's face. 

It looked like they had to simply see whatever Orochimaru was talking about to understand.  
Jack shrugged and just made a wide, inviting gesture, letting Orochimaru lead them wherever she fancied. They were going to camp under the stars anyway so someone had to pick a spot.  
Orochimaru, as always, smiled at him and then took the point, effortlessly leading them through the wilderness.

There indeed was a tree, Jack noted when they finally stopped.  
Through that could be a bit of an understatement.   
The thing was humongous and tilted to the side, with roots partially hanging over the ground, with bits and chunks of dark, wet earth still glued to their surface.  It could serve as a shelter, if one wasn't afraid of the tree falling over the rest of the way - or worse even, returning back to the way it was standing before.

"You sure it's safe?" Jack asked, eyeing the hole in the ground suspiciously.

The hole was big enough for all of them to fit in there if they decided to squeeze a bit and he wasn't planning on letting everyone rest at the same time anyway; someone needed to stay up and guard the camp, just in case the Jaffa also liked trekking through the woods. 

Anyhow, the hole got bonus points for having a roof.

After a few moments of work, it also had a surprisingly comfy floor made of leaves. It was rustling with even the smallest movement, but wasn't seeping the warmth out of them like the bare ground would.   
They also decided to risk it and set up a campfire. The smoke was going to make them easier to find, but it was going to be so dark during the night, spotting a bit of smoke will be a challenge anyway.  
It wasn't like the bonfire was smoking a whole lot anyway; Orochimaru proved that she not only knew how to move around a forest but also how to set a little bits and pieces of it on fire without risking choking to death on smoke. 

"This is almost nice," he stated, sitting in the leaves and carefully straightening his bad leg. 

The warmth of the fire helped a bit, through it could be just in his head. Jack decided against thinking about this too much, though there were not many other things to concentrate on instead.  
The MRE definitely didn't deserve the attention, since it tasted just like it always did - a very generic artificial chicken. Nonetheless it was food though and they all needed calories.  
At least Himawari seemed to be enjoying the fruit bars, after deeming everything else to be inedible. Not that Jack didn't share the opinion - the fruit bars while sticky were at least sweet, which gave them an advantage of actually having a taste - but the face she made was still baffling.   
Even more baffling was the fact that Orochimaru wasn't any better, sticking to the crackers.

On the other hand, being picky was safe, when you were eating food that was made on a different planet; things like allergies existed along with all other food related problem. Even living on the same planet, there was a possibility of dying because food disagreed with you.

Teal’c volunteered to have the first watch, so Jack decided he was excused to roll over and doze off for a bit. Sleep came to him surprisingly easy.

 

xxx

 

Just as Jack was expecting, they found the Jaffa before they managed to find the Stargate.  
Then things went better than he expected them to go, because the Jaffa didn't notice them and they could actually form some sort of a plan instead of improvising in the middle of a firefight like things usually went for his team.  
He eyed Orochimaru, who still had her open palm raised up in a warning, brow slightly furrowed and head tilted as she listened. Damn, Jack wondered if he could steal her, because it was so nice to not being shot at at every chance.  
Orochimaru lowered her hand and looked at him, clearly waiting for something.

Jack grit his teeth. It would be so much easier if they didn't need Daniel for a conversation to go beyond some basic hand-signs and grimaces.

Well, no choice now.

"Alright, kids! They know we're heading towards the Gate and are looking for us as we've just seen," Jack announced cheerfully, trying to buy himself enough time to make a plan, while appearing like he had the situation under control. The show was mostly for the sake of Himawari and Orochimaru, because his team knew him way too well to not notice that he was... not exactly lying. Carter was already raising an eyebrow at him.

"They are not dumb enough to leave the Gate unguarded," Jack continued, while Daniel was somehow managing to keep his translation two times shorter. It probably sounded much more professional too. Danny was good with words in a completely different way than Jack was. "They also don't have a way to report their findings, other than meeting face to face.”

"Do you think we should be able to take the remaining Jaffa quietly?" Carter asked furrowing her brow.

"That might be tricky, because gunshots are making a lot of noise," Jack admitted with a grimace. "And staff weapons aren't any better. But we need time at the Gates and quite a bit of it if we want to go straight home."

The plan wasn't sounding any better in foreign language, quite literally, Jack noted, listening to Daniel translating it all for Orochimaru and her little charge.   
The woman hummed and asked something in return.

"What's up?" Jack looked at Daniel.

"She's asking about creating a distraction," Daniel replied.

"Distraction? How?"

Orochimaru smiled like a very satisfied cat and licked her lips, before explaining further.

"What if the sound of battle came from someplace else?" Daniel continued translating. "Not too far away, to not make the trick to be obvious, but far enough to buy us at least a few minutes."

Jack furrowed his brow.

"This could work," he muttered. "But it also means that someone would be out there, setting up the trap and surrounded by the Jaffa..."

Which wasn't something he wanted to do and definitely not something he wanted to order his people to do. 

"I don't think it would work," he finally said with a sigh. "We would have wait for our man to come back, which would take more time than the Jaffa running straight to us-"

Orochimaru chuckled and said something that made Daniel look at her weirdly.

"What?" Jack asked.

"She said she can do that," Daniel said.

"Uh?" Jack blinked, taken aback.

"She can move much faster through the woods than any of us," Daniel translated. "I think she meant to be mildly offensive here... she said that the Jaffa uh... won't be able to see her if she didn't want them?"

His eyes were zeroed on Orochimaru;s clothes that definitely were not going making hiding in the forest easy; if anything, they were making her stick out.

"Still sound like a stupid idea," Jack muttered.

"The best one you have," Daniel translated with a heavy sight. 

In the end, they all agreed to this plan. Carter McGuyvered an explosive with a timer with what they had left. Orochimaru also was given Daniel's pistol and Carter's radio after a short explanation of how it worked.

"If anything goes wrong-" Jack felt like he was babbling, but couldn't quite help it. He would feel much better going out there instead of ordering someone - a civilian to make things feel even worse - but Orochimaru was stubborn as a mule. She made her mind and that was it.

Himawari wasn't looking too happy with the woman leaving, but after a short exchange of words - one that Daniel wasn't quite able to listen on without being obvious - she made an adorably brave face and nodded with the seriousness only kids were capable of.   
Before Jack stopped chuckling at how adorable the kid was, Orochimaru was gone.  
Literally. No matter how hard Jack stared at the treeline, there was no trace of Orochimaru.

"Damn," he said. "She's good."

"She appear to be very skilled indeed," Teal'c nodded. "I am curious if she is an equally formidable warrior."

"You think she is, big guy?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"She does not move like a trained Jaffa warrior," Teal'c said. "However not all warriors fight like Jaffa."

"So, she might be?" the question wasn't much needed, since Teal'c basically confirmed his theory, but Jack asked anyway. It was making him feel better. 

Just a tiny little bit better that made looking at the watch easier.   
As always in the moments like this one, the time was really trying his patience, crawling forward ridiculously slowly and making every moment felt like an eternity. 

He wondered how the Jaffa guards down by the Stargate weren't dying out of boredom. How were they picked anyway? Was there some sort of space rock-paper-scissors game Jack wasn't aware of? Was standing there a privilege or the warriors preferred to jog through the woods, searching for escaped prisoners?

The explosion roaring from afar caught him by surprise.

He jumped in his place and shuddered and then was very glad that the only people surrounding him were the ones that already saw him at his worst.

"That was fast!" Daniel said, already up on his feet and ready to move. 

"The Jaffa are moving," Carter reported quickly. "Only two are guarding the Gates now. Should we move?"

"Give them some time," he replied. He wanted the Jaffa to investigate a bit further, to get far away enough to not notice that their friends got jumped and beaten up and to not hear the Stargate activating.

"Tell the kid to hide."

Jack looked at his watch and did a bit of mental math. It was too close for comfort, but that was his life. Jumping in and hoping for the best.  
He really hoped that Orochimaru knew how to run and didn't bump into any additional trouble on her way back to the Gate.  

“May I inquire how are you planning to deal with the guards?”

“Oh, I have a plan!” Jack reassured himself, even if he was replying to Teal’c. Well, he tried to reassure himself. “It’s a pretty damn dumb plan, but that’s all I’ve got. 

It included him leaving his cover and walking straight towards the Jaffa, hands up in the air and all that other non-threatening stuff.

“Hi, boys! How’s the day?” Jack asked, waving at the warriors, who definitely weren’t expecting him just showing up like that. Despite the bewildered expressions, they still pointed their staff-weapons in his direction.

“Kree!” one of them demanded. 

“That bad, huh?” Jack raised an eyebrow and kept walking forward. “Mine wasn’t great either, you know. Night under the sky, I’m too old for that stuff, feels like arthritis setting in.  Not fun, let me tell you, not fun!”

One of the Jaffa shouted something back and maybe, if Jack tried, he could understand what it was about. Jack didn’t feel like it. All he needed at the moment was the attention.

Because all Teal’c needed was just a little bit of time to get behind one of the Jaffa and punch him into oblivion.

The other one cursed - that was definitely a curseword, Jack was sure of it - but as soon as he started turning towards Teal’c, Carter attacked, viciously kicking the back of his knee and sending him to the ground by doing so. The Jaffa whirled around, staff weapon flashing through the air where Carter’s head was just a split second before. She already dodged and launched herself forward, using her body mass to strengthen the hit that knocked the light out of her opponent.

"Punch it!" Jack shouted, before even the Jaffa hit the ground. 

"Already on it!" Daniel replied, already pushing the buttons on the DHD.

They flashed with a soft light under his touch, creating uneven pattern around the round, red crystal in the middle of the device.  
The Stargate itself slowly came to life; the giant ring slowly shifted with a sound of stone grinding against stone. Steam hissed, as the first Chevron lightened up and the speed of the ancient artifact picked up.

"We're going with an S.O.S signal, IDC on the long part," Jack said, looking at the line of trees and expecting a bunch of enemies to show up at any time.

Himawari peeked from the bushes and looked around, looking sort of like a nervous rabbit, ready to run and hide at any sign of danger.   
She didn't find anything of the sorts.  Well, besides bodies on the ground - not dead, just lying around with hands bout behind their backs by Carter and with bruises already blossoming, not exactly what a child should be seeing -  but those didn't seem to unnerve her at all. She decided it was time to leave her hiding spot.   
Moment later, Himawari was standing next to Carter, observing Daniel manipulating the dialing console on the DHD, while Carter smiled too widely at her and tried to stand in a way that would obscure the corpses from the view.

Activating the Stargate, especially several times in a row, always took its sweet time. And was kind of on the loud side.   
He really hoped that the Jaffa were occupied, because otherwise they were going to have a serious problem here.   
The forest was eerily quiet now. A thin line of smoke marked the place of the explosion, but besides that, there were no traces of anything at all. No sounds of fighting, no gunshots echoing from far away, no footsteps, no nothing. Even the wind seemed to be still.   


The wormhole finally erupted from the inside of the inner ring of the Stargate like a tidal wave and then stabilized.  
Blue, waving slightly and appearing to be reflecting light, it looked like a water surface despite knowing it was anything but. He heard Carter explaining how waves tilted, physics, mass and all the other stuff.  
It dispersed in a much calmer manner than it appeared, disappearing from the inside out. It didn't look like much, but looks were receiving in this case and Jack knew it very well.  
The wormhole closing on the traveller cut whatever was trying to in half.

Jack looked away, stubbornly staring at the trees and putting names to the most familiar looking, because this was not the time about things that he did over five years ago.

A few moments after Daniel was done with dialing for the third time - still no Jaffa, which was way too lucky - when Jack noticed a flash of white between the trees.  
He forced his tense muscles to relax, because it was not a fight that was approaching slowly. It was just Orochimaru, deliberately letting herself to be seen.  
Which was a good thing, considering the fact that Teal'c tensed up too, hands shifting slightly on his Staff weapon and Jack knew the activation button was a twitch of a finger away from turning this situation into even a bigger mess than it already was.

"Nice to see you again," Jack grinned cheerfully, while looking her up and down, searching for any traces of damage or distress.

He found none, which was a good thing. Still, he had to ask.

"Everything fine?"

Orochimaru raised one eyebrow and the corner of her lips twitched in bafflement as she said, well, something.   
Probably reminded him that she couldn't understand English. 

"Yeah, I get it," he chuckled back, because her action told him that there was no reason to worry. "I might just like the sound of my voice."

"The SGC just confirmed that we are not compromised," Carter joined him, followed by Himawari, who instantly jogged to Orochimaru's side, talking so quickly it sounded like bird chirping.

"Let's go home then," he decided. 

Daniel switched with Teal'c at the DHD, so he could tell Orochimaru what was happening. 

As the Stargate activated, Orochimaru's eyes widened, but the deer-in-the-headlights look quickly morphed into something more akin to fascination and wonder. 

She inhaled deeply, taking it all in hungrily and without a blink. 

Then she smiled.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was much longer than I expected it to be, but the worldbuilding decided to happen on me.   
> When it comes to Daniel running a translation and it sounding odd - I'm pretty damn sure that the shinobi have at least for different words for tracking, depending on what you're trying to find.
> 
> Jack is a fun character to write; not very fond of complicated words, but smart and quite intuitive.


	4. The Art Of Reading People

Chapter 4: The Art Of Reading People

 

As soon as Jack O'Neill arrived on the other side of the Gate, he eyed their new friend.  
People usually stumbled funnily when they had their first trip through the wormhole. From what Daniel managed to gather, the lady and the child were from a world, that had no contact with the Goa'Uld until now.  
Maybe it was low of him, but he wanted to see some funny stumbling. Orochimaru was disturbingly calm no matter what was going on and that was just rubbing Jack the wrong way.

Of course, Jack couldn't have nice things.  
There was no stumbling, no falling down on the ass and no embarrassing nothing.  
A shame, really, because seeing a person stumbling like a dork was making wonders when it came to making people appear less threatening.

Orochimaru of course didn't lose anything of her unnerving grace. Her skin in the cold artificial light looked downright unnatural, the loose material of kimono making her look more like a ghost from japanese horror flicks than a real living person.  
Yellow eyes slowly shifted, taking in the new surroundings with a soft smile on her lips. I anything, she looked fascinated. Absolutely, utterly fascinated, like she was in a zoo and just laid her eyes on some rare creature for the first time.

Himawari was the only proof that there was a humanity in the people SG-1 meet, clinging to her caretaker with all her might, clenching her tiny fists onto the colorful fabric.

Orochimaru lazily ran fingers through Himawari's hair, white skin vividly contrasting with the dark mop of unruly hair.  
She seemed to be completely not bothered by the fact that the colorful fabric of her clothing was definitely not something to be treated with fists like that.

The room was filled with the usual noise, confirmations and commands, humming like home and letting Jack relax somewhat. The kidnapped part was over, now was all about paperwork. he idly considered turning on his heel and going right back through the Gate. Sadly, they were serving only one-way trips.

"Curious," Orochimaru said, blinked and then repeated the word, much slower, as if she was savoring it. "Curious."

Right, O'Neill blinked.

"Don't worry," he said. "The Gate is doing that funny thing, stuffing language right under your skull, so you can talk with all the other people who go through them."

Orochimaru hummed.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Would gladly, but I don't get it," Jack replied cheerfully. "I just go in and enjoy having new words in my dictionary."

The Stargate shut down with a low hum behind them and the military personnel guarding this side of the Stargate moved back to their usual positions by the doors, while General Hammond walked forward. He looked annoyed, sort of tired and like he wished that he retired ages ago, like he planned to do all these years before the mess with the Stargate even started.

"Colonel O'Neill, you and your team were supposed to report hours ago," General Hammond spoke.

"We have run into some trouble," Jack replied.

He lost count how many times they went over this exact same scenario. It was definitely a lot, because his team seemed to be a magnet for all sorts of trouble that are there to find in the wast space out there. Jack was sure that someone already created a bingo card or seven inspired by the misadventures of  team SG-1.

"And I'm sure it will make a very interesting report," the General replied. "For now, you should do the check up in the infirmary."

Jack winced. This was the part of this whole travel to the other planets, meet new people that shot at you shtick he hated.  
Each mission ended like that, no matter if they actually had holes that needed to be sewn together or were all fine and dandy and the good doc was poking and prodding them only because she was told to check if everything was where it belonged.

"And who is our guest?" General Hammond asked, looking over both the woman and the child.

Orochimaru tilted head to the side. The black hair followed the movement, obscuring most of her face from Jack.

"Oh, do excuse me," she said, smile blossoming on her lips, while free hand rested on her heart. "I haven't introduced myself!"

"All is well," General Hammond reassured her with a nod and a friendly smile. "Travelling to a whole new world is a good enough excuse to forget yourself for a moment."

"A whole new world," she repeated after the General, turning slightly, so she could look at the Stargate. "This is indeed an... unexpected experience."

"We've bumped into her and the kid after we got snatched by a Goa'Uld," Jack explained. "Got out no problem, brought our new friends home."

After Orochimaru introduced herself and Himawari - and Daniel was right, the little girl knew her son - Jack ended up leading the whole group to the Infirmary for a check up. At least up until the moment an idea sparkled inside his head.

He patted Daniel on the shoulder.

“You take over the school trip here, I have things to do.”

“Jack!” Daniel hissed at him like an angry cat, puffing up his cheeks and failing very much at looking menacing. “Now you’ve decided to ignore the protocol?”

He was a little bit right and probably had a reason to be a little bit bitter about it too - there were many occurrences where Jack personally shooed the man from his current reason to act nerdy, just to make sure the protocol was followed and there were no weird alien life forms in him this time. To tell the truth, their whole team had a somewhat disturbing history when it came to being compromised by alien life-forms…

And he was standing in one place a split-second too long, because Major took notice of their little argument going on.  
Jack tried to dodge at the first fork in the road.

"Um, sir?" Carter looked at him weirdly. "The Infirmary is not that way."

"I know!" he whispered loudly. "Potty break!"

Major's expression turned sour.

"I know, I know!" Jack groaned and rolled his eyes. "Gonna join you guys, don't wait for me!"

"It's on you," Carter decided and turned her backs to him.

Jack cheerfully waved and turned around to jog his way, all the way to the first corner.  
Then he slowed down. People running around usually had reasons to run and in a military base that kept getting in trouble with aliens these usually were pretty damn bad.  
He didn't need people to start panicking, because he was acting a bit different.

Nobody paid much attention to him besides a greeting here and there; people had jobs to do and Jack looked like he knew what he was doing and where he was supposed to go.  
Also, nobody was willing to get in the way of a person heading straight for the General Hammond's office. Jack knocked and entered, cheerfully saluting.

"Hi! It's me again!"

Someone else would probably get seriously pissed off at him for behaving like that and demote him all the way to scrubbing toilets, but Hammond was, well, Hammond. They knew each other for what seemed to be ages, they went through a lot of shit together and that included at the very least two alien invasions, death and resurrection.

It was quite hard to act completely properly with that sort of a baggage between them.

General was sitting by the desk, pen in hand and a pile of papers in front of him. The computer was buzzing quietly and the printer coughed up another page of whatever the General was fighting against this time.  
He raised his eyes from the paperwork and then pushed it all aside, putting the pen on the unfinished page with a sigh.

"Sit down, Jack. Is this about our guests?"

Jack dropped down onto the cushioned plastic chair in front of General's desk.

"Well, we don't have the greatest history with guests," Jack started and grimaced.

One of Goa'Ulds played them good and almost took control over the base, they were compromised a few times and that included a melon-sized ball that felt very stabby - his shoulder still hurt from time to time - then a bunch of Goa'Uld that were supposed to discuss peace treaty decided that their base would serve better as a stabbing ground. There were a bunch of more guests determined to use them... it never was pretty.

"I just thought it would be better to be careful."

Hammond nodded. "Talk."

"The kid is a kid alright, though I think wherever they came from, they have weird ideas what you're supposed to teach children."

"Meaning?"

"Okay-ish with excessive violence, disturbingly aware how to act while adults murder each other, that sort of things," Jack grimaced. "I think Danny will be able to pick her brain alright, asking for school and stuff."

Hammond hummed and looked at Jack, hands resting on the desk and fingers put tightly together.

"The woman is the one that made you come straight here," he stated.

"Uh-huh," Jack agreed. "Definitely military trained, I think Black-Ops or something like that. She’s tight-lipped just like someone from the Black-Ops."

"...up until recently you weren't even speaking the same language," Hammond pointed out, bafflement shining in his blue eyes.

"Tight-lipped is tight-lipped," Jack shrugged. "Also, went against a Jaffa in full armor with just a knife and won. Made it look easy, even. She also trekked through the woods like Teal'c only quietly, while I was about to sweat my eyeballs out.  So, uh. Not quite human, I think?"

He wasn’t all that young, but his physical condition wasn’t all that bad and Dr Fraisier was confirming it on monthly basis. Meanwhile, Orochimaru had an endurance that wasn’t even bordering with pure insanity - it was way past that point.

"Do you think she's going to become an issue?" General asked, his expression slightly darkening.

"I have no idea," Jack shook his head. "I hope not, but better be careful."

"Keep an eye on her," Hammond said. "I'll make sure to be prepared for the worst."

"Sure will do," Jack grinned. "They should be with the good doc right now, she will sure add some interesting tidbits about our guests."

He should be heading there too, because both Carter and the Doc were about to tear off his head.  
Well, the excuse was stupid, but it felt out of his mouth before Jack had a chance to think how to lie subtly enough for Carter to understand without Orochimaru catching the wind of it.  
Offending a potential ally just because they were to act responsible and careful? Not fun.  

Jack wasn't sure what he was expecting to see in the infirmary.  
The worst case scenario were soldiers pointing guns at his team, somebody's eyes shining in that one of a kind, golden way and someone punching the alarm before all hell broke loose.  
The usual scenario with guests from other planets usually involved arguments with Fraisier, where the aliens either argued with the doctor that the medical procedures were bad, accusing her of being a witch for taking their blood.

It was peaceful inside. Himawari was sitting on the examination table, rocking her legs in the air, with a small smile on her face. A kid perfectly fine in a doctors office, that was a first.  
Carter and Daniel shot him dirty looks, but Jack decided to ignore his teammates. There were more interesting things to stare at than the familiar and mildly pissed off faces.

Orochimaru hovering over the good Doc, who was pushing controls of the MRI machine and looking like Christmas came early wasn't what Jack was expecting at all.

"Alright," he said, looking around, hoping that someone had the answers. "What's up?"

"I think Orochimaru felt in love with the MRI," Daniel replied, looking baffled.

Jack blinked and slowly repeated the words in his mind, trying to spot the place where words stopped making sense. Only that they were and it all quite fit with what he was seeing, so...

"Seriously?"

The last time they tried to have a scan of an alien, the MRI was almost destroyed and got itself a rather catchy nickname - the Tube of Doom.

Jack didn't like it either, but he had to admit, it was a better option than getting radiation poisoning from all the check-ups, both planning and random. The policy was necessary, proved by more than one snake that sneaked its way inside, but necessary didn't mean he couldn't bitch about it.

"As you can see on the picture," Daniel said. "Carter went first, to show that it was safe, Orochimaru decided to see how it looks from the inside next. Now Teal'c is getting checked, while Janet is explaining the details..."

"Huh," Jack blinked. "So our new friend is a nerd?"

"Jack!"

"What?" he shrugged. "I'm telling the truth!"

Getting excited about a tube that made a lot of noise was definitely a nerdy thing to do. And Orochimaru was shameless in her nerdiness, asking questions Jack couldn't even understand.  
On the other hand, Doctor Fraisier looked like she was enjoying the conversation.

"Looks like a friendship is blossoming," he decided.

It was one sentence spoken out loud too many, because Janet whirled around and her dark eyes settled on Jack, expression hardening instantly.  
He gulped.

"Colonel," she drawled, straightening up. Despite the fact she was as high as his shoulders while wearing heels, Doctor Fraisier was still the most terrifying woman he'd ever known. "How nice of you to finally join us."

"Yeah, sure!" he chuckled, trying to not sound nervous. "Some things came up, you know how it is..."

"You are aware that by not heading here first, you might be risking spreading an unknown disease around," she stated coldly. "Yet there you are..."

Jack had no idea a person could put on examination gloves with such menacing sound, but there she was, scary as hell and tearing a package of a needle.  
Himawari giggled cheerfully, completely undisturbed by the aura of danger oozing from - now armed - Janet Fraisier.

"You're in trouble!" she announced in a sing-song voice.

"You're awfully cheery about it," Jack commented, then looked back at the good doc. Big mistake. "Be gentle, be gentle... Ow! That wasn't gentle!"

Himawari laughed openly at his misery.

"You're like Boruto!" she declared.

"What, he's got on the bad side of a doctor too?" Jack asked jokingly, peeking under the surface of gauze he was holding to his arm, to see if he was still bleeding.

"He once tried to run!" Himawari said. "But auntie Sakura is really fast!"

"Doomed from the start, wasn't he?"

Himawari nodded enthusiastically, clearly enjoying the sweet, sweet memories of suffering.  
If Jack had to take a wild guess, she was talking about her brother. He remembered there was some talking about him sometime before. He wondered if it would be good to ask her about him some more, or it would remind the girl that she was far, far away from home.

 

xxx

 

Since establishing contact with societies from other planets and building alliances the supposedly main goal of the Stargate Program - they usually just got in trouble and blew things up - there were actual guest rooms available for use.  
Some of them were more like a very comfortable cells, locked from the outside, with cameras hidden in the corners and with all necessities in the suite, so the suspicious traveler would not snoop around the base using potty break as an excuse.

They once put a Goa'Uld in this particular room, back when they had to lie through their teeth negotiating a peace treaty, so the Earth would not be obliterated instantly.  
The camera was a very helpful thing back then, because the snakes just couldn't sit in one place for five minutes without trying to backstab each other.  
Jack hoped that this time there would be no stabbing.

Though still, the fact that the woman was a someone's hit-list was making Jack feel glad for the camera's. Even if they were peeking in on their guests constantly - there was that thing called benefit of the doubt and all - it was still making him calmer. Just because.  
Orochimaru wasn't exactly striking him as suspicious; during their travel together she made sure that the girl was safe and warm and trekked for hours carrying the girl without a single groan.  
She was also a parent herself, through that didn't mean a lot; Jack meet a dozen different sorts of freaks that were so sure that their creepy-ass way was the only right one.

Jack knocked on the doors, hoping that him banging against it sounded cheerful rather than threatening and rocked on the balls of his feet, waiting.  
This is how far his plan was going: go there, bang on the doors, hope for the best.

"Oh, Colonel, was it?" Orochimaru smiled at him the moment she opened the doors. "Came here to check in on us?"

"Just to see how you two are going," he said with a shrug. "A different planet, weird people, new language in the head, you know, the usual."

Orochimaru chuckled and stepped aside, so Jack could enter the room.

It looked just like it usually did - a room set up to look vaguely fancy without telling much about the Earth; even the pictures on the walls weren't the usual cheesy shots of an idyllic seashore but either vague impressions of something Jack couldn't quite identify himself or pictures of one planet or another, all done in paint and looking anything but like the real deal.

Then again, neither one of them actually came with any sort of a baggage. 

"It is quite odd, but manageable," she said. "Though the inability to read in your language is infuriating."

"Read?"

"Madam medic was nice enough to hand me a book with schematics of chemical formulas," Orochimaru said. "But finding a picture with the right set of symbol under it is rather troublesome."

"Uhhh... I guess it is?" Jack said slowly. "What were you looking for?"

"Why did your people decided that painting the toothpaste blue is a good idea?"

"It looks fresher this way," Jack quipped back immediately.

"It certainly does not," Orochimaru said. "Instead it looks like paint."

"I think some kids actually use it as a paint?" Jack scratched his head. "You know, at preschool, where they do all sort of weird things. Painting with the toothpaste, gluing macaroni to paper and calling it art, that sort of things."

Orochimaru just hummed in amusement, one eyebrow raised, chin resting on one of her hands. In a black t-shirt - it looked like she went for the biggest one available for whatever reason - and standard military trousers she looked... even more pale than before if it even was possible. She moved naturally though, like the completely different clothes were not bothering her at all.

Well, Himawari's clothes would fit just fine on Earth, so maybe the woman owned a T-shirt or two of her own.

There was a tattoo on her wrist, quite big, circling her wrist and forearm with thick, black rings. It was distracting. Jack couldn't help it, his eyes were just going towards the dark lines, no matter how hard he tried to behave well and don't stare.

"Well, how about I pick you two up for breakfast and we compare notes on how wrong the mess hall food is?" Jack grinned brightly, glad that he managed to find a distraction.

"Oh, it's a military base. Military food, I dread it already."

Jack snorted. The deadpan the joke was delivered in was a work of art, she probably trained to speak like that her whole life, just for the sake of puns. He would need to pick up his game, because someone here was obviously winning.

They waited a moment for Himawari to get out of the bathroom.

The girl was wearing clothes Doctor Fraisier  had brought from  her home; her daughter, Cassie, grew out of those some time ago and promised to buy something that would be more fitting for Himawari. Cassie definitely understood the situation much more than any other teen would - once upon a time, she was in a very similar place. Good thing too, sending out random military guys for shopping usually ended up with fashion disasters. Jack still remembered the reaction Mickey Mouse caused and could swear that Cassie was still more creeped out by the cartoon characters than by anything one could find on the internet these days.

"The toothpaste was weird," Himawari grumbled, rolling her sleeves up her arms, so she could actually use her hands.

"It's not going to kill you, I have checked," Orochimaru replied.

"What sort of a toothpaste you are familiar with then?" Jack asked.

"We use herbs to make it!" Himawari chirped in reply. "And mom also makes cream and salve and soap and stuff!"

"That sounds... healthy," Jack said carefully.

The SGC mess hall was an oddity created out of necessity; it was hard to tell day from night so deep underground even if one was simply working on site and shifts around the clock were not helping much. It was even stranger for the teams that travelled through the Stargate. Jet lag - they all were living it.

Because of that, the mess hall served breakfast 24/7, same with other meals, just because there were always people who just woke up. Also because of that, the food items were always of the kind that was rather easy and fast to make. Either that or the more complicated stuff that came out of the bag and always tasted like chicken. Jack preferred to keep as far away from those as possible - he are more than enough of MRE in the field.

Eyeing the Fruit Loops with great hatred, Jack made a beeline for the sandwiches. It was the ham and cheese day, these were always the best so he lucked out managing to grab some before others decided to obliterate the whole serving and observed the little girl, expecting her to do what children are usually doing when given a choice to pick their own food - to put all the possible sweets on her plate and then go for the Coke.

"This is not what mommy makes for breakfast," she muttered, staring at the things available on platters.

"Pick some fruits, the ones you can name, alright?" Orochimaru proposed with a smile.

She didn't look too happy about it, but obliged anyway.

They sat at Jack's table, Himawari with her fruits and a bowl of porridge and Orochimaru with eggs and some cooked vegetables. Safe choices all around.

Himawari put her hands together and said something Jack couldn't quite understood, while Orochimaru simply put her fingers together for a short moment.

"So, what do you guys usually eat for breakfast?" Jack asked, after they started.

"Rice!" Himawari chirped. "And miso and  fish and vegetables!"

"That's... sounds like quite a big breakfast," Jack said carefully.

"Traditional kitchen usually is," Orochimaru commented. "And what do you usually eat for breakfast?"

"This is going to sound sad, but the military grub is pretty much just like it," Jack said.

Orochimaru raised eyebrows.

"That's sad indeed."

"So," Jack took a bite of his sandwich. "All that jokes about military food and stuff. Were you?"

"Are you trying to probe me for information, colonel?"

"Eh, just curious," Jack replied with a shrug. "Though you do find your way around here with ease. You being in the military would explain a lot."

Orochimaru looked at him from under eyelashes, a small smile on her lips, finger wandering on the edge of her cup of tea.

"Why are you asking questions you already knows the answers for?" she finally inquired.

"Mom taught me it's not polite to assume," he immediately replied back.

"Mine told me that gathering information is what saves lives."

Jack wasn't sure if it was an agreement or an argument against what he just said, but she didn't look offended. He counted it as a success.  
Also, totally Black-Ops. That paranoia was one of a kind.

"May I ask something?"

"Sure," Jack shrugged. "shoot, but I might not know a lot. I'm the guy who shout at people to make sense of things."

Orochimaru chuckled.

"Aren't you selling yourself short?"

"Eh," he waved his hand. "So? The question?"

"How did you made the Stargate to translate language?" Orochimaru asked. "I must admit, suddenly gaining the ability to properly talk with you wasn't what I expected."

"Honestly, I have no clue, I've told you before," Jack shrugged. "I don't think we did anything, to tell the truth."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, at first we had no clue it was actually doing anything besides looking cool and spitting us out on the other side of the Galaxy," Jack snickered. "At first we were visited a handful of planets that were friendly, over and over, learning from people there about stuff. Stuffs. Like, how to say hello to locals without offending the hell out of them, where definitely not dial to..."

Orochimaru nodded in understanding and rested her chin on the palm of her hand.

"We were sure that we were just learning the language from locals as much as they were learning English," Jack continued. "You do learn stuff pretty damn fast when you're constantly hearing it, so nobody made a big deal out of it."

"How the unexpected function came to light then?"

"Two of the teams that were going out the most were hanging out together, comparing notes," Jack snickered. "Only nobody else could understand them, because apparently, there was a sudden case of speaking tongues."

"Oh my," Orochimaru covered her mouths as she chuckled.

"Yeah, it went as well as you think. About three weeks of needles, prodding and probing until we knew for sure there was nothing wrong," Jack sighed, grimacing slightly at the memory of it. "It took a planet where people used a whole different language to actually help us solve the riddle."

There was some - a lot - more testing involved, scientists arguing with each other and Dr Fraisier, not to mention Carter looked like she was about to drop dead any moment but eventually it was decided it was all Gate's fault.

 

xxx

 

Carters office always looked more like a science lab than what an office should look like - at least how Jack imagined all offices to looks like.  
Sure, there was a desk and a cabinet filled with folders with documents with one of these funny plants on top that were supposedly able to survive without any sunlight. But there also were computers and things that probably had some fancy scientific names Jack never cared for, a huge, complicated diagram hanging on the wall where a calendar was supposed to be, covered in tiny letters and notes and a desk was covered with a set of blueprints, pens and rulers, pushing the lamp to the very edge of it.

And lying over all that mess was a spiderweb of wires, braided tightly together at some places and coming apart at others, reaching for those scientify thingamajigs.  
Major had her back bent over one of those things, tying a wire to it, completely oblivious to the fact that the doors behind her were opened.

"Hiya, Carter!" O'Neill cheerfully greeted her.

She stiffened but didn't jump in surprise and turned around. There was a thin piece of cord hanging from her mouth. The pockets of her jacket were stuffed with random items - a roll of duct tape, scissors and pincers and more than a few different screwdrivers among the other stuff he could see.

"Didn't know you were changing the decor!"

"It is nice to see you, Orochimaru, Himawari. How was your night?" Carter decided to ignore him and instead greeted their new friends.

The girl instantly started chirping about how odd she found some things, toothpaste of course, included, while Orochimaru chuckled in bafflement, observing her.  
Well, it was hard not to, it was pretty damn cute.

"So, what are you up to?" Jack asked, as soon as carter managed to manipulate Himawari into playing some sort of a ping-pong game  on the computer.

"I'm putting together a prototype of what we'll need to access the files on the crystals we stole from the ship," she explained.

Jack looked around once more.

"That seems... complicated."

"Right now it's just trial and error," she said. "I'm not going to risk using the crystals from the ship for awhile, we can't risk getting them fried either."

Yep, getting the hard-drive with the only existing data about what planet their guests were kidnapped from fried was probably a bad idea.

He idly wondered what Carter was using instead. Some piece of the staff weapon maybe? Crystals dug out from some Goa’Uld artifact? Or maybe they managed to scavenge something useful from a destroyed Death Glider? Jack couldn’t tell. The only time he did something related to science and alien devices was when he was literally out of his mind.

Orochimaru looked curiously over the blueprints, careful to not touch anything, one hand up and keeping hair away from face, the other one with fingers close to her mouth, in the exact way that seemed to pop up every time she was deep in thought.  
Jack idly considered a trip to Colorado Springs, just to buy her some hairpins or something. Fashion choices or not, from where he was standing it looked plain annoying.

"I must admit, this is a surprising amount of progress," Orochimaru said after a few moments of looking up at the mess Carter created and back down at the papers.

"How come?" Jack asked, before Carter blinked away her surprise.

Orochimaru made a passing glance at the girl before replying.

"I am guessing that the travel through the Stargate is not a very old thing for you," Orochimaru started. "You are explorers, unfamiliar with what is out there and if I have to guess, you have learned about the dangers lurking on the other side fairly recently."

Huh, Jack raised his eyebrows.

Not that they were hiding it or anything, but Orochimaru was here for a day and that included a few hours in the infirmary and a full night of sleep. He had to admit, she was learning about them very fast. Disturbingly so.  
Then again, she had also put her cards on the table and Jack wanted to know what exactly she was playing at.

“Well, yeah, compared to the Goa’Uld we’re not that powerful,” Jack said with a shrug. “But we’ve made friends out there and we are going to keep making them. That’s where you are coming in, you know. I don’t think you fancy being a slave and that’s pretty much the only other option in this galaxy.”

Orochimaru chuckled.

“That is indeed not much of a choice,” she said. “But what makes you interested enough to waste time and resources to this extend? Not that I don’t approve…”

She was acting amused, relaxed, lazy almost, but her unusual eyes were hardly gazing away from Jack’s face, with no doubt catching everything his poker face didn’t manage to hide.

“That’s easy,” he replied and gestured with his thumb at Himawari, still immersed in the world of 2D ping-pong. “For the starters, you are advanced enough to know what a computer is.”

Orochimaru blinked slowly and her eyes widened slightly.

“Which makes your an alliance with your world a very tempting when it comes to making alliances,” Jack continued, cheerful up until this point. “However it also means that your planet is in danger, because it’s everything the Goa’Uld doesn’t want in their galaxy.”

It was probably pretty damn unfair to dump all the responsibility for an entire planet on the shoulders of one woman, but Orochimaru was all they had at their disposal and Jack wanted at the very least to be heard by the locals.

Orochimaru hummed, tilting her head to the side slightly.

Jack couldn’t get a read on her face because these blasted hair were obscuring most of it.  
He was so going to buy her hairpins.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably should write something else, but goddamn. Goddamn, I'm having so much fun writing this one. 
> 
> Also, MRI machine - with both Byakugan and medical ninja around I highly doubt that the ninja had any need for inventing something to see how people looked on the inside. The civilian population seemed to both work and receive help at the same place ninja did, so they never felt the need either.
> 
> The little story about Stargate adding language files to memory while spitting people out back and forth is me desperately trying to find a more or less logical explanation for a tv-show having tv-show logic shortcuts; the issue of aliens speaking something that wasn't English was dropped around episode 5, so the show wouldn't be too repetitive, but nobody even tried to bullshit something up like it was done in the "Farscape".


	5. Where Guests Are Being Investigated

Chapter 5: Where Guests Are Being Investigated

 

The last time they had guests under the mountain, things were much much less mundane, Jack O'Neill idly mused during the long elevator ride down.  
This time, there was no screaming, no shooting and nobody took over the base which, honestly speaking, was a very nice change of pace.

If anything, Orochimaru was probably the only one troubled, because she was dead set of being a responsible adult, not letting Himawari out of her sight and trying to find things to occupy the little girl with. It wasn't exactly going along with her need to spend time in the Infirmary, learning and nerding out about whatever stuff she found worthy of her attention. And damn, wasn’t there a lot of it.

Jack felt a bit wounded at the fact that the woman didn't trust them enough with Himawari, but he knew all too well that it was irrational.  
She knew them for how long, a week tops? That was definitely not enough to build up enough trust to just dump kid at them. Not that she herself knew Himawari for much longer, but...  
They were in an unfamiliar military base, deep underground and on an unfamiliar planet, surrounded by military personnel and alien technology with no way out. In that situation he would be wary too.

Luckily, Orochimaru had a poker face worthy of a Nobel Prize and was somehow always knew exactly what to say to make a child obey without using actual orders. It was an admirable ability, Jack had to admit. Admirable and probably some sort of a superpower.  
Daniel also admitted to being a bit creeped out by this.   
He also told him how trying to learn something more about their world from Himawari ended up. 

It started with Orochimaru strolling around with the girl into Daniels office and looking curiously around. 

"Oh my," Orochimaru said and covered her mouth with her fingers. It was more a reflex than her truly trying hide her reaction to the state of the room.  
If Carter's office turned from time to time into a mad scientist's lab, Daniel's place looked like it belonged to a hoarder with fairly odd tastes. Which wasn't too far from the truth, actually.

"Oooh!" Himawari was much more awed by the odd knick-knack, pieces of antique things gathered on the planets they've visited and gifts from the world where people didn't try to kill them too much.

"Sorry for the mess," Daniel said, probably smiling in that very Daniel way that always made people mellow a little. "But I think here's more peaceful than in the mess hall."

Which was true, because even after a week, Orochimaru's presence didn't lost its novelty and a lot of soldiers and scientists were constantly stopping to say hello, just to have an excuse and stare a little.

"Oh, it is fine," Orochimaru smiled. "Quite fascinating, actually."

"Is there something you like?" Daniel immediately took the chance to probe them a bit.

"You have a pretty big collection," Orochimaru said, gesturing towards the bookcase that was filed to the brim and hosted a bonus amount of odd volumes and papers on top of it. 

"You're a reader, I take?"

"You might say it," Orochimaru smiled at him for a moment and then her attention returned to the books. She stepped closer and brushed her fingers against the backs of one of the thicker volumes.

"Curious though," she said.

"What is?"

"The font vary rather drastically from one book to another," she noted.

"Well, yeah. Some languages use a different set of letters or symbols, depending on-" Daniel babbled, because of course a question about something he was interested in would bring a true flood of information. 

For someone who was supposed to learn about people, he was doing way too much of teaching these people stuff instead.  
Literally, because after he was done talking Orochimaru asked him about teaching them English.

"Well, it makes sense," Daniel explained himself with a shrug when Jack questioned him some time later, as they were headed for the meeting with General Hammond and rest of the people involved in their newest alien-related situation. "They are going to be here for awhile. And we can use their notes to learn their language, so... fair trade?"

"Thought you already talked their language," Jack pointed out

"What I was doing was butchering it and simplifying everything I could," Daniel admitted. "It also involved a lot of guesswork."

"Sure, whatever. I guess that's a nice thing to do anyway. Unless you want to be bugged for reading ingredients of everything Orochimaru picks up."

And nobody could hold developing this particular habit against her, since what was perfectly safe for them, could be poisonous for the offworlders.

"So, how's your elementary school doing?" Jack smirked and nudged Daniel under the ribs. 

Daniel looked at Jack like he had just punched him in the face and stepped away, covering his side just to be sure another nudge wasn’t coming. 

"They had a bit of trouble getting their mind wrapped around the fact that the letters are symbolizing sounds instead of  ideas," he said finally. "But it goes fairly well. Orochimaru turned it into a game of sorts, too."

"A game, huh?" Jack raised his eyebrows. 

“Yeah, like writing in a code,” Daniel smiled. “Himawari told me that her mom sometimes hid candy around the house and left a bunch of riddles to help the kids find the treats.”

Jack chuckled, because the mental image was kind of cute. Even if, added to all those other little things, it was starting to build a rather disturbing picture.

Doctor Fraisier added a bit or two to the said picture when they settled down on their little meeting with the General to gossip about their guests some more.

Daniel told the General pretty much the same things he told Jack, only using bigger words, while Jack was fighting the sudden need to rock on his chair.   
The thing was too heavy for it anyway, besides, it was always getting him glares from everyone else in the room and it didn’t look like a distraction like that was needed anyway.

Satisfied with the report, General Hammond gestured towards Doctor Fraisier, who nodded shortly in response and stood up. It gained her but a few inches in height, but it also made her appear even more professional than she already was. Besides, Doctor Fraisier liked to get up close to people when she was explaining things. Especially in the Infirmary, especially when they were trying to leave without her approval.

“No traces of Naquadah in the blood,” was the first thing she said, which made everyone relax. No Naquadah meant that there was indeed no Goa'Uld wrapped around the spine of either one of their guests.

“They're both healthy, at least as far as I can tell,” she continued her report. “There also are some differences. Mainly, the ratio between fat and muscle mass is considerably different than what we're used to think as normal.”

“They don't look all that ripped,”Jack commented. He was glad that Doctor Fraisier was dumbing things down enough for normal people to understand, because her report - he skimmed through the paper copy lying on the table in front of him - had all these fancy words with insane amount of syllables that sounded very smart, but weren’t telling him a thing.

“It's not always very obvious,” Carter said. “Especially when it comes to women. And Orochimaru is quite fond of baggy clothes.”

So, six pack or no, it was invisible under a shirt two sizes too big.

“Anything else?”

“Himawari’s more what we're used to when it comes to the muscle- fat ratio, but it could be simply because she's still a child,” Fraisier continued. “I also found out that some of her facial muscles around with the nerves in the area are developed in a way I can't quite explain.”

“But it's safe?”

“As far as I can tell it doesn't handicap her in any way,” Janet nodded. 

“What about Orochimaru?”

“She's, well.” The woman stopped for a moment, looking for the right words. “Awfully symmetric.”

“Symmetric,” Jack slowly repeated after her.

“It might sound odd, but humans actually are not very much like that. It's hardly noticeable, but it is like that. Just a little bit of a size difference here and there, shape not quite the same, slightly different placement of muscles on the opposite sides of the body.” 

“And she's not like that?”

“Definitely,” Doctor Fraisier nodded. “Usually too symmetrical features are striking us as odd - that's one of the reasons why computer graphics don't appear real even if there's a great amount of details, they're simply trying too hard to imitate the real thing.”

“So what, that hair in the face haircut is hiding that she's… what? Too perfect?”

“She also has a tendency to tilt her head to the side, prefers to sit with her legs crossed and so on,” Daniel murmured. “I think she’s just self aware.”

“Besides that, there's one more interesting thing about her.,” Doctor Fraisier continued. ” You probably know all too well that every sustained injury leaves a mark, even if it was healed. Breaks, sprains, even pulled muscles, it's all leaving traces.”

“I sense a ‘but’ in there,” Jack mumbled, massaging his bad knee reflectively.

“Well, if she is or was a part of military forces, then traces of former contusions should be there even if she was extremely lucky and never broke anything or got wounded,” Fraisier explained and then made a small, frustrated noise. “There's nothing, literally nothing and it shouldn't be possible.”

“Maybe their healing factor is the same way their muscle mass is?” Daniel blinked. “Is that possible? I mean, they lived without making any contact with another group of people for a very long time…” Daniel proposed, stealing a glance at Teal’c.

The Jaffa, while still getting scars after being wounded, had a tendency to bounce right back up. Sure, it was mostly thanks to the Goa’Uld larvae in their gut, but still.  

Doctor Fraisier shook her head. “Himawari had sprained her wrist some time ago.”

“Could it be just Orochimaru? I mean, she's uh… sticking out. And most of the weird is wrapped around her, so... maybe?”

“At this point we can’t tell,” Doctor Fraisier said. “We’re still waiting for the bloodwork results and I doubt these would answer all the questions.”

“Inform me when you will have something more,” General Hammond decided. “I prefer to keep finger on the pulse, just to be sure.”

After that, it was Carter’s turn to report that she managed to blow up her office again.

  
  


xxx

 

"I know it's not much, but it's better than running down the corridors," Jack said, feeling a little awkward as they entered the gym.

There wasn't much space available underground, so it was rather on the underwhelming side; just a lot of mattresses on the floor, some equipment stacked by the wall by the wall and a punching bag. 

It wasn't even used all that often, unless someone managed to talk Teal'c into having a match with someone. It was always entertaining, even if the Jaffa had trouble with following the stiff rules of whatever sport they roped him into. Well, it was entertaining for people who weren't in front of Teal'c.   
Then again, it was the only one place available as he couldn't just grab their guests and put them in his car to have a nice trip to Colorado Springs. Well, he could possibly get away with Himawari, since the girl didn't look any different from other kids her age.  
Orochimaru on the other hand...

"I don't mind being underground too much," Orochimaru said with a soft smile, but then she glanced at Himawari. "However..."

"Yeah, I get you," Jack sighed. "Children needs the sun and stuff."

"I would hate to rely on supplements for too long," the woman said. "Though I do understand your hesitation."

She was still looking at Himawari and Jack, despite himself, followed her gaze. He knew what he was going to see and twisting his heart wasn't exactly what he had planned for his afternoon.  
The kid looked... mopey. She was trying to fake excitement, but she wasn't doing a very good job at it. 

"It still can be somewhat fun," Orochimaru said and patted Himawari over the shoulder to get her attention.  "You're not in the Academy yet, are you?"

"No!" the girl shook her head but smiled. "But Boruto shows me the Academy style all the time! And mom and Auntie started showing me the Gentle Fist!"

Distraction was a success, Jack smiled to himself. His curiosity also spiked, because hey, he was going to see... PA from another world. 

"Well, I can help you a bit with the Academy style," Orochimaru smiled at her. "Can you warm up first?"

Himawari enthusiastically nodded. 

“Dad showed how to do it to Boruto and I joined them!” She proudly declared. “And now me and Mom are doing stretching before breakfast every day!”

“That's… really healthy,“ Jack said carefully. At the same time, he was making a mental note about how physical activity was probably much more important for them than to many people on Earth. He wondered if Orochimaru and Himawari were the norm or the exception from it.

“So, there's like a special way to warm up and stretch? Or people are doing it in their own way?”

Orochimaru blinked.

“What for?” she asked and the tone of her voice actually showed confusion. “Muscles needs to be warmed up before training. Well, if there's a need to concentrate on a certain part of the body for whatever reason then there's also the need to modify the exercises, but that's not what you're asking, isn't it?”

Jack smiled a bit sheepishly. 

She looked adorable, running around in circles and waving her hands around and then making that thing with her leg that Jack was familiar with and was never very fond off.   
Orochimaru was observing the girl too, leaning comfortably against the wall,with her hands crossed loosely on her chest.

"Soo," Jack started, eyeing her. "The Academy Style. What's that?"

"Why are you asking if you're going to see it in a few moments?" Orochimaru chuckled.

"Eh, you know me," Jack shrugged. "When I don't know stuff I'm getting antsy."

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow.  She was wearing the hairpins, but even with her face actually visible, it was ridiculously hard to read her; she wore smile like a mask, hiding behind it whatever she was thinking.

"That 'Academy' part makes it sound like something school related," he continued, eyes back to observing Himawari.

The girl was stretching now, moving through a set of exercises without a pause to think what was supposed to be next.   
Impressive, for a kid her age.  
Jack sometimes couldn't even remember what sort of exercised he did a few minutes before if he was training on his own. 

"It is," Orochimaru nodded. And then didn't say anything more to explain, obviously baffled by his expression.

"I'm done!" Himawari chirped happily.

She waited for a nod of approval and after receiving it, she made a few steps forward to stand more or less in the middle of the room.   
The way she moved looked a bit like karate, but at the same time it definitely wasn't karate.  Himawari was very fluid for a kid, sort of like those little champs that had blue belt before their tenth birthdays.  
Jack felt like clapping his hands, because it was pretty damn impressive.

Orochimaru on the other hand didn't seem to be awed too much. She kept correcting the girl, nitpicking on the smallest details and appeared to be expecting only perfection.

"Aren't you too harsh?" 

"Are you expecting me to approve of an incorrect form?" Orochimaru blinked. "That doesn't sound very smart."

Well, it wasn't, Jack had to admit. There was a risk of straining something or pulling a muscle when doing an exercise, but there was a difference between doing something wrong and being slightly off. 

Himawari didn't seem to be offended or saddened by the criticism at all. If anything, she was trying to follow the pointers. 

"So, kids learn martial arts where you're coming from?" Jack decided to try a different angle. "That's neat. I've heard it does wonders when it comes to discipline."

He didn't even need to go that far; some of the soldiers stationed on the base had kids and were eager to share their experiences or just whine about how unruly they were. Apparently, dumping a bratty boy in a karate class once or twice a week did wonders.   
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow and looked at Jack as if he said something weird.

"They do," she finally answered. "What children on your world are learning?"

"Uh, ball?" This time it was Jack who was blinking, surprised by the odd choice in words. "There's a lot of ways to play with ball. You kick it, or bounce it, or catch it, or dodge it..."

"It sounds like it's quite... popular."

"Yes, we do like our balls very much," Jack nodded. And stopped dead, glancing at Himawari, to check if she was still occupied by her not-karate. Sometimes the words were just popping out of his mouth without his brain noticing it. Usually it was a good thing, because it was making him look sort of like a dork and dorks were not very threatening, which was a good thing out there.   
Some other times this was happening. 

Luckily, Himawari seemed to be too concentrated onto her exercise to hear him.

Orochimaru looked unimpressed. 

"I'm done!" Himawari announced, then looked down shyly. "I don't know what's next."

"That's fine," Orochimaru smiled. "You can just practice what you already know. Strong basics are important."

"Okay," Himawari said, looking a little bit disappointed.

Jack felt the same way. Also, he was curious to see how this martial art stuff looked performed by an adult.

"Or maybe you can show off a bit?" he proposed. "I mean, you obviously know this stuff really well, so why not continue with a next step or two?"

"Can you?" Himawari put on her best Puppy Eyes to work and damn, that looked pretty damn effective. She just had that adorable, chubby face going on, with her big, blue eyes shining with excitement...

Orochimaru shook her head, clearly baffled. 

"You're going to learn it anyway," she made her decision with a sight. "We might as well start now."

Himawari made a happy squee and Jack felt like joining in. A shame he didn't dragged Teal'c in here. Teal'c would definitely enjoy this even more than he was and he would actually be able to say something smart about it.  
Jack was just enjoying the show.

Orochimaru started with the very beginning, obviously comfortable with the movement.   
She made sure everything was slow enough to clearly see everything she was doing, but for some odd reason, it didn't look still like some demonstration did and there were no pauses in between.   
Jack was tempted to say that it was an eerie experience, to see someone move in such relaxed and fluid way, but something - a little thing he wasn’t able to put his finger on - was off about the whole thing, making all the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

"This is where you're currently at," Orochimaru suddenly said, her voice no different than a few moments ago, like she wasn't just performing an exercise. "It's a high kick followed by stepping into a defensive position, so make sure to pay attention to your center of gravity."

She demonstrated it, slowly enough to make Jack wonder how in the world it was possible for her to not flop on the ground.   
It was high enough to kick him in the throat, which was fairly ridiculous on it's own, but then she kept moving that leg around, while her other was planted on the ground and not even shaking a little when her weight was shifting.

"I can't raise my leg that high," Himawari said, chewing on her lower lip. 

"That's fine," Orochimaru said, effortlessly dropping to what Jack assumed was the defensive stance and straightened up. "You can try and see what are you most comfortable with."

"Oh," Himawari blinked, then her face brightened with a sweet, sunny smile. "Okay!"

Vigorously and slightly wobbling on her feet, the little girl proceeded to kick the air.  She was adorably enthusiastic about it. 

Jack fought the instinct that told him to coo over her and turned his attention back to Orochimaru.  
She was also observing Himawari, hands crossed over her chest and a small smile on her lips. She wasn't interfering, letting the girl to discover her limits on her own.

"So," Jack started. "You can, like, modify it? The name sounds more like you should go by the book."

"It's not encouraged, but the Academy style usually serves simply as a foundation to build on."

"So, everyone got their own thing going?" Jack raised eyebrows, trying to imagine something like a martial art tournament with all the contestants doing whatever they fancied. He couldn't quite picture anything but a mess.

Orochimaru merely shrugged.

"There are many styles that expects the user to be at least proficient with the Academy one," she said. 

Jack made a noise of agreement, while his mind worked. It sounded sort of like what people were learning at the forces, a mix of moves stolen from various martial arts, destined to take down the enemy as quickly as it was humanly possible. H e wasn't sure if he liked it; Himawari was a child, after all.

"I think I've got it!" Himawari announced, cheerful and innocent.

"Is that so?" Orochimaru tilted her head to the side. "Can you show me the entire sequence then?"

Himawari nodded making a determined little  sound and once again stepped to the middle of the room. She shifted a little, taking her time in getting the position just right before she started moving.  
As far as Jack could tell, she managed to remember most of the pointers Orochimaru gave her, but she was still glancing at the woman, seeking her approval.  
Orochimaru kept her poker face on, simply observing, but Jack was sure she was making all sort of mental notes to address later.

"How was it?" As soon as she send the kick into the air and stepped back, Himawari was bouncing in front of Orochimaru, excited to hear her verdict.

"You are making progress," Orochimaru chuckled. "Are you feeling up to doing it again?"

Himawari immediately became less enthusiastic. "Do I need to?"

"Repetition is going to help you become familiar with the movements," Orochimaru said, patting her over the head. "It's a great teacher."

Himawari hummed in agreement and returned to exercising.

"It's just me, or you are trying to tire her out?" Jack whispered. "Because it looks like you're trying to tire her out."

"Oh my," Orochimaru covered her lips with fingers in a rather theatrical manner. "You've seen through my evil plan!"

 

xxx

 

Jack had an actual job to do around here, so he used it as an excuse to get away when Orochimaru decided it was time to go being a nerd together with Dr Fraisier.   
It was amusing at first, when they were wandering around the infirmary and confirming the names of various medical equipment in two languages or trying to describe what a certain doohickey was supposed to do without using a very specialized language. Heck, Jack probably learned more about it all during few hours observing Orochimaru being amusingly excited than in his entire life.  
Sadly, after the women were done with getting Orochimaru's dictionary up to speed, they started talking in nerd and that wasn't all that funny. 

"If things are going to be like that she'll end up working there," he muttered to himself, playing with paper age rather than actually reading whatever was written on it. 

Jack's very own broom closet - a tiny office with a desk, a cabinet for files and a camp bed stuffed behind it, for the times when he wasn't feeling like going all the way up to his quarters, but was feeling like sleeping.   
Not that it was a bad thing or something, that hiring aliens thing. Teal'c was doing great. Besides, Janet was probably one of the most professional people he knew and she had nerves of steel, so if Orochimaru got her seal of approval it would mean a lot.  
On the other hand, they couldn't simply keep all the nice aliens they found out there.

Carter was still trying to work her way around the alien tech and put her hands on the data stored on the crystals. Despite the fact that she managed to set her office on fire two times, nobody was too eager to call the Tok'Ra to ask them for help.  
Sure, the buggers would read the data for them without a problem, but they would not share the technology that allowed them to do so and then they would try and put their hands on the potential alliance with Orochimaru's world, hoping to trade scraps of information and handful of Gate addresses for new hosts.   
Their way maybe was taking longer, but they were learning useful things. And maybe possibly securing a very promising alliance.

Well, the realm of possibilities didn't look too dandy, Orochimaru was just one person after all, but she was quite charming when she wanted to be. A person, that while fun to have around and gentle, gave that off feeling that made him uneas. It wasn't helping that she almost effortlessly wiggled from giving any answers she wasn't feeling like giving at the moment.

"Jack? I need to talk to you!"

Daniel appearing out of nowhere and startling the hell out of him wasn't anything new. If anything, it happened with a suspicious occurrence, especially when Jack was faking filing reports and all the other sort of paperwork, while his mind was wandering places.

"What is it this time, Danny?" he asked with heavy sigh, putting his paper away.

Was he supposed to go talk to the good General and talk him into some archeology related missions just because they hadn't done the monthly quota on digging holes in the ground?  
Or he simply wanted to return to some planet that had an especially fancy pile of debris?

Daniel took the question as an invitation and shoved a book right in Jack face, as if it was going to make him understand, well, something.  
The thing was pretty damn old, the pages inside were obviously loose and differed in size and the spine of the book was holding together only on sheer determination.

"What I'm looking at, Danny?"

"I think this is some sort of a hit-list," Jackson said so quickly, he barely understood what he was saying.

Jack blinked, because while the words were there, the logic was missing.

"Where did you get something like that?"

"Remember the last time we were kidnapped on a Goa'Uld ship?"

"Uh-huh," Jack nodded. "Good times. Good times. What of it?"

"It was lying around in the same room our weapons were," Daniel explained quickly, enthusiastically and Jack made a step back just to make sure he was not going to be accidentally smacked by some wide gesture. 

"Yeah, I remember you grabbing whatever was lying around. So? What's so cool about some Goa'Uld still using paper to doing their dirty work?"

Daniel shook his head.

"Not Goa'Uld," he said. "I'm fairly certain it came from the same world Orochimaru and Himawari did."

Jack found himself leaning forward, while an unpleasant feeling settled in his stomach.

"I'm listening."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Making the gossipy meeting to be relatively short was on the painful side, but It's their job to investigate stuff.  
> Also, some headcanons used the chance to worm their way into the fic here and there. There will be more, but I'm trying to be subtle.
> 
> Say hi to the bingo book!


	6. Where The Morality Check Takes Place

Chapter 6: Where The Morality Check Takes Place

 

Jack decided they should talk to the General about the book.  
It looked important, so calling up a meeting seemed to be a neat idea. Jack wasn’t feeling like participating in the same discussion over and over again with everyone that needed to be informed and Daniel had that special look going.

Hair messy - messier than usual and sticking in all directions because he had that habit of putting his hands in it and pulling and brushing and other things when he was doing thinking - face blushed and eyes shining with excitement and something else, clothes wrinkled in a way that told Jack a story about someone who spend the night not sleeping like he was supposed to.

That look promised a discovery of the week and Daniel bouncing off the walls until he shares his discovery with as many people as possible.

"What is it, Doctor Jackson?" General Hammond seemed to be seeing the same thing, because one glance in their general direction was enough for him to start asking questions and put away whatever he was currently working on.

"I think I've found something!" Daniel said, waving the book with dangerous amount of vigor.

Jack stepped away, before the thick folder hit him in the face.

"What is it?"

"This is some sort of a hit-list," Daniel started explaining. "I'm still not sure how actual this is..."

"Daniel, get to the point."

"Uh, right!" Daniel quickly shuffled through the book, pulled out a handful of pages and laid it out on the General’s desk, managing to cover all the free space and most of the documents gathered there.

Jack peeked over Daniel’s arm to look at the papers, not expecting to understand anything; he was able to talk with the natives on the offworld planets not because he was studying, but because the Stargate, through some wacky sciency ways even Carter couldn't explain, stuffed words into his brain.

The writing was indeed completely unfamiliar, but there was a very familiar mug staring back at him.

"Huh," he blinked. "Huh. Okay. A hit-list, you say?"

"I didn't manage to translate all of it," Daniel admitted. "But every page includes the same sort of information: Things like height, date of bith, military rank - I guess it is a military rank - place of birth and uh… nationality? Affinity? The fraction they belong to. I don’t really know, there’s no syllabus attached to learn more about the political situation there."

"Those can be different?"

"Apparently they can," Daniel nodded. "There were some other people who either decided to serve for the other... fraction? Nation? Something like that. Though much more of people who left their birthplace are noted here as uh... outsiders? Something like  Ronins in Japan, they were the samurai who did not belong under-"

"Danny, I don't want to know what the samurai do," Jack slowly pronounced each word. "I want to know why that Orochimaru lady is on a hit-list."

"We don't know much about their culture," Daniel quickly explained. "It could be something her father did and the crime was passed on?"

"Aaand where that theory comes from?"

"Either she's a seventy years old man or they medicine is advanced far beyond ours?" Daniel smiled at him, pulling one of the papers from Jack's hands to demonstrate.

Well, Jack thought.

The person on the photo clearly looked like Orochimaru, just more... angular, a bit more muscular too. But the similarity was  nonetheless striking. His hair was even obscuring the unnaturally white face in the exact same manner she wore hers even if his were loose, falling down on a dull green flak-jacket, while Orochimaru seemed to prefer keeping hers tied in some way.

"The name is the same, so it either goes down the line or is a title," Daniel babbled. "And they could count their time different than us too, the full rotation of the sun could take for example only a hundred days-"

Jack tuned Daniel out. He had a bit of thinking to do about this whole thing.  
It wouldn't be the first time one of their teams accidentally aided a criminal, nor it wouldn't be the first one where they brought said troublemaker home. it was... easy to make certain assumption or just to not communicate well when talking with alien people - which is why they also had teams that were all about diplomacy and straightening things out when shit hit the fan.  
The question was - was it hitting the fan now?

They already knew that Orochimaru was a professional combatant, a soldier. Meaning there was an army, meaning there was a reason for said army to exists - probably a whole different army. Making profiles of some extraordinary officers wasn't all that strange either-

“I think there are four different files about Orochimaru,” Daniel said. “Either that or it's really a hereditary title.”

“Or maybe they just updated it?” Jack proposed. “You know, to get rid of the awful spelling that turned her into a grandma?”

“You might not be wrong, but…” Daniel chewed on his lower lip, brow furrowed with worry.

Jack knew that face all too well. It was the expression Daniel was making every time he was about to say something that Jack was not going to like, something unpleasant enough to make the usual rapid fire of words stop.

“What is it?” Jack asked with a deep groan.

Daniel simply handed him a single page, yellowed with age and slightly torn at the edges.  
A familiar pale face was looking at him from an old photo, washed out colors making it looks even more eerie than usual. Only it was a very, very young familiar face, chubby with baby fat and grim far beyond age.

“Alright,” he said slowly, his voice coming out sounding as if it belonged to a stranger. “They are updating the files alright. I think I’m going to go grab our guest now and we’ll play twenty questions.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Colonel?” General Hammond looked him in the eye.

“Isn’t it?” Jack shrugged, pushing both of his hands deep into pockets. “It’s going to bug the hell out of me if I just let it sit there, on the back of my mind. And with all due respect, General, I know you. You will be up all night, thinking about your grandkids. Am I right?”

He was, of course. George Hammond was one of those plain good people that somehow still existed and he would do anything for these kids. And Orochimaru on that photo looked even younger. The mental image of a little child with a weapon in hand brought an on image to his mind, one that Jack really didn’t want to revisit.

General sighed deeply.

“Go,” he said. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Jack hoped so too.

xxx

 

When Jack found Orochimaru, he also found a heart attack.

Well, not really, but it felt like his heart not only skipped a beat, but tried very hard to escape his body through the throat.

It was in the personal quarters occupied by Teal'c. Really easy to recognize, because the lights were turned off and instead the place was illuminated by shaky, warm light of candles - lots and lots of them - the Jaffa was using when he was meditating, filling the entire corridor with the sweetish smell of wax.

Teal'c was also inside and, the forever exhibitionist, was in the middle of demonstrating his Symbiote.  
It looked just as nasty as Jack remembered it. An x-shaped cut-like opening in the abdomen was disturbing enough all on its own, especially when the pieces of skin and muscle moved away from each other, obscuring the red, wet tissue inside and making enough space for the larvae to partially slip out.  
The thing was still looking like straight out of some horror movie, disturbing and alien in that goosebumps inducing way. It was something your very subconscious was screaming in terror about, making the body to move away all on its own.  
Jack might have made a startled noise at the sight, despite the fact that he had seen the thing many times before.  
Then he froze in place, because Orochimaru was there too.

Her flee instincts apparently non-existent, the woman was kneeling in front of Teal'c  to be on the same level with the larvae.  
What was even more disturbing was the fact that she was holding the Goa'Uld head in one of her hands, forcing the four jaw to clench and open, completely not minding the four thin, sharp fangs barely inches away from her face nor the sticky, transparent fluid slowly going down her wrist.

The larvae made a distressed, high-pitched noise, just in time to partially mute Jack's yelp.  

"Woah, kids!" he announced his presence, letting himself to sound as grossed out as he felt. "Am I interrupting something? Should I come back later?"

"JackO'Neill," Teal'c welcomed him as always, like he wasn't just caught doing something weird. "We were talking about the enslavement of my people."

"Sure you were," Jack deadpanned. "So, um, having fun showing off your snake?"

"This is very fascinating," Orochimaru agreed and let go of the larvae.

The Goa'Uld quickly retreated back into the pouch. It was so obviously agitated by the whole ordeal it was almost hilarious. It definitely would be hilarious if not for the gross part with the goo and a hole in the abdomen and the nasty parasitic alien stuff.

"Are you sure you are using the right word?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "Because it sounds like we have some sort of a  dictionary mishap going on here."

"Why?" Orochimaru chuckled, examining the goo still covering her wrist. She poked at it with a finger and her smile only widened as some of it got glued to her skin and spread out between her hands like a particularly nasty bugger.

"Jesus! Wash your hands!" Jack looked away, cringing. "Pretty please!"

"Oh my," Orochimaru seemed to be more and more amused by the whole situation. "This is just a bit of organic fluid!"

"Which is why it should remain on the inside!" Jack argued back, still decisively not looking.

There was a deep sigh, as if he was the misbehaving kid here, but a shift and a few footsteps followed.  
As the doors softly clicked open, Jack exhaled in relief. Orochimaru decided to go to the bloody bathroom already.

"Should I be worried?" he looked at Teal'c, who appeared to be way too much entertained for Jack's liking. "Is this is a developing habit?"

"I see no point in hiding what I am, JackO'Neill," Teal'c replied.

"Yeah, sure, that's neat and all," Jack rolled his eyes. "More people should do just that, but that's not the excuse to go and wave your snake around!"

The Jaffa quirked an eyebrow at him. They knew each other well enough for Teal'c to catch on the subtle shift in his tone.

Jack made a face and shrugged, gaining himself a nod in response.

"Are my hands to your liking now, Colonel?" Orochimaru was suddenly a few steps away from him - when in the world she managed to enter the room and how come they didn't notice her? - demonstrating her raised hands as if she was about to perform a magic trick.

"Yeah, sure, you're all up my alley when not covered in weird substances," Jack replied quickly, not paying attention to whatever was coming out of his mouths, too occupied with making mental notes. "Though I really want to ask. How did you guys ended up here? Not you,T, that's your room, I know how you ended up here, you walked."

"It was just the smell of wax," Orochimaru said. "It quite standing out here and at the same time it is a familiar scent. We followed it to investigate and Teal'c decided to help us satisfy our curiosity."

"Us?" Jack blinked.

Teal'c shifted a little, so the far end of the room was visible. There was a small TV in one corner, stuffed next to a surprisingly full bookcase. In front of it was a big, comfortable armchair, currently covered with a jacket that looked like it was simply thrown at it - which didn't fit Teal'c that much, he liked to put things in the exact place they were supposed to be put instead of making things homey. From under the jacket, two feet in red sandals were peeking out.

"Oh," Jack said, lowering his voice just a little bit. It would be such a shame to disturb her. "That's really cute."

"Teal'c explained to us that he needs the candles to meditate and we decided to join in," Orochimaru continued her explanation.

"I can see that," Jack nodded. "She's doing great!"

Well, now at least he knew the why and how about the situation he walked on. Teal'c was always very open about how meditating was keeping him alive and Orochimaru was obviously curious enough to keep asking questions up until the demonstration happened.

"Well, it's good to know that a peaceful cultural exchange can actually happen," he said and eyed Orochimaru.

She was observing sleeping Himawari with an expression Jack couldn't quite interpret, but it looked... soft.

"Hey, since the kid is asleep, can we have a talk, between us adults?"

Orochimaru tilted her head and looked him over. Whatever she found, it made her brow furrow a bit.

"What do you want to talk about?"she asked. Her voice sounded just like it always did, calm and… not exactly gentle, considering how she sounded like, but she didn’t sound stressed out.

Good.

"I had a thing somewhere," Jack muttered and patted his pockets. Then he patted his other pockets, because the first one's didn't seem to have what he was looking for. Finally, when he started to feel stupid instead of only playing the part, he managed to produce a  folded piece of paper. "Aha!"

He handed it over and waited for the reaction, a bit afraid to even blink, because he could miss something.  
Orochimaru carefully unfolded the paper and looked at it. Her eyebrows rose and eyes slightly widened in obvious recognition of the copied page.

"I haven't expected to see this out here," she admitted.

She sounded more baffled than anything, which wasn't exactly what Jack was expecting.  
She was also still reading, furrowing her brow at some detail on the page.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to find a hit-list either," Jack shrugged. Then he waited to get an answer or at least something.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Um. So... care to share what's it all about? I'm feeling kinda confused?"

"And you are not alone in your confusion," Orochimaru finished for him.

"There's more," Jack added with a nod. "But we all thing it's a thing for adults only, so we might use the chance...?"

Yellow eyes darted towards the sleeping girl and then swept over Teal'c to finally stop at Jack's face. With her head tilted to the side and a skewed smile on her face, she almost looked like the person on the photo.  
She finally hummed in agreement.

"I guess you are right. I assume we are not going to do it here?"

"Nah," Jack said. "I know where they have the best chairs."

 

xxx

 

Orochimaru was a person who not only wasn't minding the silence that feel in the room the moment she walked in, nor the cautious, alarmed glances.  
Quite the opposite - she seemed to be absolutely reveling in it.

She swept into the room as if she owned it, looked over the people gathered inside and the files from the hit-list covering the surface of the table. Her smile widened and she sat down, taking the place right in front of General Hammond.  
Elbows on the table, knitted together her fingers and set down her chin, Orochimaru grinned.

"Sure, make yourself at home, I guess..." Jack muttered and took the seat on the side, so he could have a good view on both her and the General.

"I'm glad to see you here," General Hammond said, his voice perfectly neutral. "I assume that you are willing to answer a few questions of ours."

Orochimaru made an amused sound, looking at the man from under her eyelashes.  
It wasn't an official interrogation,  she wasn't a prisoner nor a criminal - or so they hoped - but her mannerism was starting to be unnerving.

"You see, we already know there are some cultural differences between us and the world you've came from," Daniel  decided it was time for him to start talking. "I think it would be wise to talk somethings over, before they become a problem."

"This sounds like you are talking from experience," Orochimaru noted, her gaze shifting from the General to Daniel, while her position remained unchanged.

"I am," Daniel nodded.

Jack managed to not roll his eyes, as the long list of people who tried to take over the base and seemingly friendly locals that decided to kill them rolled in the backs of his mind.

"It appears, that the Bingo Book is somehow involved," Orochimaru mused.

"Bingo Book," General Hammond repeated after her.

"Fun name for a hit-list," Jack commented, which brought him the attention of the inhuman yellow eyes.

"It both is one and isn't," Orochimaru admitted.

"Um, you are aware that there are prices on every single page?" Daniel poked with his finger at a set of symbols on one of the scattered papers.

"There needs to be a reason to apprehend a powerful enemy combatant," Orochimaru replied cheerfully.

It explained absolutely nothing and Daniel's face was betraying his confusion.

"I think we are not following here," Jack said. "Are we following here? No? Though so. See?"

Once again, Orochimaru's attention was on him.

"From what you are saying, it looks like people in your place are getting paid for doing stuff, right?"

Orochimaru blinked.

"This is a very logical conclusion, yes," she agreed.

"And that includes soldiers. As in, paying them when they go out there and get their hands on the enemy," Jack continued. That sounded awfully like mercenary work.

It was also a bit on the weird side, because it involved an insane amount of spywork and whatsnot just to create a profile of a single enemy combatant. It just wasn't worth it, so there was a reason they were unable to decipher yet.

"That's not all what they might get paid for, but yes. I assume it is different here?"

"You might say that," Jack agreed.

"There's actually one more thing that's definitely different," Daniel started carefully. "Or at least we think it is. How old you have to be to enlist?"

They went through the documents gathered in the Bingo Book. Names and places, words that did not mean anything to them and all that accompanied by the faces staring at them sternly from the photos, many of them young. Some of them disturbingly so.

"What he's saying is that we sort of frown upon sending children to the battlezones," Jack once again bugged in. He might have resorted to screaming when he first added two and two and felt like screaming right now.

Kids were supposed to be kids and even the Jaffa had that nice period of time called childhood.

Orochimaru smiled. There was something ugly behind the expression.

"Technically speaking there are no children fighting," she said, sounding almost like she was amused. "Once gaining your head protector, you're treated as an adult."

"And that's fucking bullshit and we both know it!" Jack found himself standing, fists on the table and voice raised, with face feeling like it was burning.

"Colonel!" General Hammond gave him a clear warning, because it was getting way out of hand.

"No, with all due respect I'm not going to shut up!" Jack hit the table with his open palm. "This doesn't even make any sense! What a kid is going to do against an adult?"

“Usually nothing much,” Orochimaru admitted. She reached out and shuffled through the papers, fishing out her own file, the one where she was so awfully young. She hummed, skimming through the writing and then put it back down.

“Usually,” Daniel carefully, tenderly repeated after her. There was a story behind that simple sentence and it wasn't hard to guess what exactly it was about. It ended with her alive and someone else not. “How old were you?”

“Six,” she answered, still acting more as if she was telling them an amusing story and not… that. “You seem to be quite troubled by it.”

“We find it to be pretty damn immoral,” Jack said. “And six… you were younger than Himawari, right? How's that a good idea? I mean, you can see…”

Himawari was sweet and bubbly, childish and cheerful and to imagine that there was a world that would gladly tear all that away from her and replace it with a weapon…  
Jack slowly sat back down, feeling like a deflating air balloon.  
Some of the children on the pages of the Bingo Book were grinning, others had a downright bashful expression on the face. Orochimaru was one of the few exceptions, serious and way too aware of what really was happening.

“Times have changed,” Orochimaru said as if it was explaining everything. Her smile not exactly softened, but… it looked different now. Less dreadful, maybe. Lacking that disturbing something Jack couldn’t really name.

“I think we are missing context,” general Hammond slowly said. “ Could you please elaborate further?”

“The world during my times was a fairly different place,” she said with a small shrug. “Himawari is from the first generation that hadn't seen war.”

“First generation since…?”

Orochimaru shrugged again.

“The history from more than a hundred years before is rather… sketchy. However that's when taking children to the battlefields became a norm.”

“A hundred…?” Daniel blinked. “ That's… not much. That's actually a terrifyingly short period of time.”

“That's not important here, Danny. So, do you know how exactly kids with weapons became a good idea, or it's just one of the things your grandfather used to do?”

“I have no idea who my grandfather was,” Orochimaru said, blinking slowly. “Though I assume this is not the actual question.”

Her attention once again returned to the files from the bingo book.

Jack couldn't help himself but wonder, if she knew some of these people, not from the photos that she skimmed through wondering who to stab in the neck next, but on a more personal level. Was there someone she befriended? Someone she went for a drink with?  
She found another one of her own bingo book entries, the latest one, where someone tried to make additional notes. Tried. There was a lot of crossed out stuff, symbols that looked half-finished as if the person who wrote it changed mind in the middle of the sentence.  
Orochimaru studied it for a moment and then furrowed her brow.

"Something you don't like?"

"I'm just mildly offended."

"By what? The price?" which would be ridiculous, because there were literally three or four people who had higher prices on their heads.

All of them - and some people with more reasonable numbers under their names had a thing in common - a small ad-notation that said: "Flee on sight" according to Daniel.

It was one of the few entries that also had an envelope attached to them; there were just a few photos inside, with stuff written on the backs - a registration number, name, and a bit more numbers that helped to find their own "wanted" poster.  
From where he was sitting, Jack could see what Orochimaru was looking at.

A redhead man with a very tired expression on tanned face.  
Another man, this time with hair so pale they appeared to be white and a very unpleasant grin filled with too sharp teeth.  
Next one was a woman. This one Jack actually remembered, because the nerdier side of the involved people from SGC started arguing over her hair - was the vivid, deep crimson color a natural thing, or was it artificial and if so what was the meaning behind it?  
Then came the last photo, fitting the subject of the current discussion all too well. A grim reality was staring from a child's face.

Jack shuddered. It felt like someone went crazy with the AC, the air suddenly had that icy bite to it that made him want to wrap the jacket tight around himself and hide his hands in the sleeves.  
The lamp cracked and hissed loudly, for a slit of a second going dark, filling the room with oppressive, seemingly unnatural shadows.

Orochimaru had her brow furrowed and the smile slipped off her face, leaving it perfectly blank and unreadable.

Jack swallowed. He wanted to repeat his question because the silence was getting downright uncomfortable and his ears were ringing unpleasantly, but his throat was too tight to squeeze words out. Almost as if his body knew better than to act at this moment.

Orochimaru carefully returned all the photos but one into the envelope and set it aside.  
Her yellow eyes were resting for a moment more on the last picture, before Orochimaru raised her gaze.

"The period of Warring States was a time of unrest. The clans were separated and constantly fighting against each other and all alliances were feeble things," Orochimaru started. "Many perished and all the traces of their existence disappeared with them, while the others were fighting for the very survival using every trick they could think off, no matter how immoral it was."

Jack eyed Daniel, but the archaeologist was already completely immersed in this unexpected history lesson of a dog-eat-dog world. He was probably creating a long list of additional questions about all sorts of topics.

"Destabilizing the structure of the enemy clan was a way to ensure the survival of your own family," Orochimaru continued. "The easiest way to do so was to deal with the enemy clan members before they became strong enough to protect themselves.

It got bad enough that not only using your last name became a taboo of sorts, but children were introduced to it only after proving they were capable of keeping the secret."

Daniel licked his lips.

"The secrecy wasn't enough, was it?"

"It wasn't," Orochimaru nodded. "It got to the point that the battle zones became the safest places for children because there at the very least were adults capable of protecting them."

Jack grimaced painfully.  
She said something about not knowing who her grandfather was and she either followed the old tradition of not telling strangers her full name or never had a chance to learn what it was in the first place.

"Still," Orochimaru continued mercilessly. "They were an easy target that had the added bonus of distressing their parents enough for them to make mistakes."

Jack closed his eyes because, Jesus, they were going for the kids. They were going for the kids first just because it gave them a small advantage. However it also explained why Orochimaru was not letting Himawari out of her sight.

"It is a crude tactic," the woman said softly, looking down at the photo in her hand. "However it is working. I am distressed."

Jack blinked.

All the element of the puzzle were right in front of him. That brutal, bloody history lesson, Orochimaru being a soldier… but the first thing she introduced herself as was a mom.  
Whoever owned that Bingo Book, was obviously doing their homework, somehow managing to put their hand on a photo of her son and the same book was found on a spaceship belonging to a race of beings that treated everyone else as slaves or worse.

"Okay. I get it, but I don't get it, if it makes any sense," he said, not finding any other way to subtly change the topic to something less disturbing. If he was in Orochimaru's place, he would be down at the Gate, clawing at the iris. "How do you people managed to wiggle out of murdering each other to the last man standing?"

"Two people decided the current situation doesn't sit with them well and were powerful enough to bruteforce their clans into a truce," Orochimaru explained. "A few smaller clans followed, because it looked like a good opportunity to stay alive and the rest of the world started to panic."

"Then the example was followed, was it?" Daniel asked. "I mean, at first it definitely was a shock and a whole new face to a potential danger, but after awhile it was impossible to not see all the profits."

"That happened," Orochimaru nodded. "Through then the need for far more resources was discovered along with a lot of other issues. As you can guess, things were not very peaceful."

"So..." Jack started. "You still have six years old running around, while adults are occupied with murdering each other?"

"The age of recruitment was steadily pushed to more reasonable number and even after, the fresh recruit usually are given chores to deal with."

"Chores?"

"The children make truly adorable faces when they are told to weed the garden instead of saving a princess," Orochimaru smirked a little. "There's also the fact that we are mostly at peace."

"Mostly?"

"It's a fairly new development," Orochimaru explained. "And while an alien invasion was needed to unify the people, nobody is too eager to break the truce now."

"An alien invasion?" General Hammond narrowed his eyes.

"Definitely not Goa'Uld,” Orochimaru said. “Through the… ship landed where the attack had happened. I’ve decided to investigate and you know the rest.”

“Investigate?” Daniel picked up. “That’s... you were there for a reason, haven't you? The attack you've experienced. It was something huge, wasn't it?"

Jack closed his eyes. If something forced a world at war to unify against a common enemy, then it was one hell of a danger. It definitely left a mark and Orochimaru made it sound like it was quite a big one.

Orochimaru hummed in agreement.

"We expect them to be back, sooner or later," she said. "It's important to learn as much as possible."

"And you've decided to go out there on your own?"

"Obviously," Orochimaru said with a small smile. "I'm trying to find out as much as there is to discover about the invaders, which sometimes forces me to venture out."

Jack furrowed his brow.  
Orochimaru was a soldier, yes, but she more and more appeared to be more like Carter or good doc Fraiser than the usual goon. Especially considering how much she loved being a total nerd.

"So, you were trying to what? Science up a concoction that would deal with the danger?"

"Ah, very smart, Colonel!" she said. "While I'm not trying to develop poison, you're fairly close. I'm more interested in discovering what exactly made the alien tick."

"So, that's what got you so interested in Teal'c and Junior?"

"I can't help but find it fascinating," Orochimaru shamelessly admitted. "A crippling dependence on a foreign organism, physical changes, not to mention the shutdown of the immune system..."

There was a sparkle in her eyes and her face expression transformed into something that looked like excitement and damn if it wasn't the weirdest thing to get excited about.

"Besides," Orochimaru continued, her expression once again neutral. "I've discovered the spaceship only by chance. I had no way of telling for how long it was there nor when it was going to leave."

"So, you've decided to take the risk and investigate," Jack summarized. "I would say that's one hell of a bad luck, but..."

But if Orochimaru decided to play it safe, then Himawari would be all alone and that's honestly something he couldn't wish upon a kid.

"I think it is safe to assume that wasn't the first time the Goa'Uld visited my world," Orochimaru said. "It is logical to learn as much as I can about them."

It was hard to not agree with her. On the other hand, what use would be all that knowledge to her, if she wouldn't be able to bring it back home? Did she decided to trust them to bring her back home? But why now, when everything appeared to be going down like a house of cards around her?  
Orochimaru didn't even seem to be particularly distressed.  
Then again, she did know they were desperate for allies...  
Jack felt like screaming. And maybe like shaking her. Just a little bit.

 

xxx

 

"So," Jack started, looking left and right, a few moments after Orochimaru left the room.

She still appeared to be more baffled than anything by the whole situation. Which, honestly speaking was more and more like she was simply putting on a mask, fully aware her aloofness was throwing people off.  
General Hammond rubbed his temples and groaned painfully.

Jack felt for the man. He wasn't doing much better, his head felt like it was about to explode, his eyeballs of all things were pulsating in pangs of pain and he just wanted to crawl into some dark hole and deny reality for awhile.  
Sadly, he couldn't do that.

"On one hand it got a bit more complicated," Daniel started carefully.

"There's an other hand?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

"Colonel," General said with a tired voice.

Jack nodded, deciding to keep his mouths shut for a while. The man sounded like he was already fighting off a powerful migraine and honestly it wasn't all that surprising.

"We decided Orochimaru was a soldier since the moment we meet her and we were not wrong," Daniel started. "Her world has a more disturbing history than we expected."

"I don't like that history," General Hammond stated. "The fact that she's avoiding giving us clear answers and is as vague as it's humanly possible... I don't like the image I'm getting."

"Uh," Daniel curled in his seat doing his guilty face. "I might know why she's so careful to not tell us too much?"

General Hammond looked at the man for a long moment. His expression looked exactly as Jack felt. Dirt old and way too tired for all this bullshit that just kept coming.

"You are free to speak, Doctor Jackson."

"Orochimaru's profile wasn't the only one with attached pictures," Daniel started, pulling out a folded envelope from his inner pocket.

"I assume there is a reason why you were hiding it from everyone?" General Hammond asked.

"Yes, actually!" Daniel nodded, while  spreading out a bunch of photos and yet another Bingo Book entry on the table.

Jack wasn't paying much attention to the file, because of him it was just a page filled with weird symbols, but he was definitely paying attention to the photos.  
Especially because there were children on two of the photos. One of them was very familiar, down to the cute, symmetrical birth marks on the puffy cheeks.

"You see this man," Daniel tapped on the file. "Is the uh... boss? Chief? General? I'm not sure what is our equivalent. Anyhow he's the person with power of the spiral with a sharp edge place."

"Spiral with a sharp edge?"

"I have no clue how to translate that symbol," Daniel admitted. "But it shows up on lots of people listed in that Bingo Book. Also, Orochimaru seems to have a lot of history with that place."

There actually was that weird swirly on Orochimaru's entry, Jack recalled. Along with a symbol that looked like a music note, followed by yet another swirly and some additional notes that looked like the person writing them was both very confused and frustrated.  
So there was a history indeed. Considering how their world tended to solve their problems up until recently - at least according to Orochimaru - a fairly bloody history.

"Whatever truce there is, it's definitely shaky," Daniel continued. "But it is there and Orochimaru didn't sound like someone who would fancy starting another war."

"So, stuck on another planet with no way back home, with a child that's a very important political asset, surrounded by military people that have their own goals and their own, galaxy-wide war with a new kind of aliens," Daniel summarized.

"Okay, I would keep my poker face on all the times too," Jack admitted.

They already knew her son was attending the same school Himawari brother was. Was the kid some sort of a hostage, like it they were still in the medieval times? Or was it a show of trust?  
Jack hoped it was not going to go south because of all this mess.

"How are you certain that they world is currently at peace?"

"It's Himawari," Daniel said. "We've already heard that child soldiers are a fairly common thing. Considering what we've learned from Orochimaru..."

"Himawari would be trained," General Hammond nodded. "For her own safety, considering what we were told."

"And she's not," Daniel nodded. "She's only starting. There's also the fact that Orochimaru keeps asking questions. In my opinion, she's making sure she's not getting too far ahead.”

“I’m not really following here,” Jack admitted. “She's still getting trained, right? A bit later than usual, but still.”

“I think it is pretty safe to assume that martial arts are very important to their culture.”

“Gee, no shit!” Jack groaned. “Considering what we've learned I would be surprised if they knew there are other things kids could learn!”

“Besides reading English, Orochimaru is covering math with her, there's quite a lot of trigonometry and physics in it, as far as I can tell,” Daniel explained. “So I guess there Are things to teach besides fighting. Though she's avoiding calligraphy like plague.”

He actually snickered, which made the whole thing appear to be even weirder. Daniel usually was the person who bugged everyone from another planet to write a bunch of stuff down, just to see how different it was and to analyze how the differences happened and other stuff that Jack was not even vaguely familiar with.   
Having him simply rolling with an alien not doodling letters around was... odd.

“Why? Another taboo thing?” Jack rubbed his temples. “Is writing restricted, a secret or something like that?”

“No, that's not it,” Daniel shook his head. “It's… her handwriting is just really bad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter decided to be ridiculously long even after cutting out a bunch of stuff. I guess they really needed to talk about stuff??
> 
> a bunch of headcanons:
> 
> \- I think people expected Orochimaru's Bingo Book entry to have the chronological list of all the sins and crimes against the Leaf and rest of the Elemental Countries, but...  
> It would be extremely silly to not only tell the world that one of your most powerful shinobi decided to leave, but to openly admit just what sort of mess said shinobi managed to create while still in the village. That's like a huge security risk and even bigger stain on the village reputation. And said reputation is very important since that's where the money are coming from.  
> Therefore my version of Bingo Book is extremely vague when it comes to the details: just the place of origin, list of the abilities everyone is more or less aware of, a note about "crimes against the village". For Orochimaru, there's also "murder of the Third Hokage" because everyone saw it, but both Suna and Konoha have their mouth shut about Rasa's fate - they didn't want to look stupid for being infiltrated and tricked.  
> Ninja Info Cards were much more detailed.
> 
> \- I headcanon Orochimaru as a person who has no patience whatsoever for menial tasks like writing things down (it crawled from that one comment about Orochimaru's lazy seals made by Jiraiya). So, when situation forces Orochimaru to write, it's done as fast as it is possible and who cares about pulling your pen away from the paper anyway? Orochimaru's kanji looks more like someone was trying to draw pasta but got frustrated and it made Kabuto cry on regular basis. It is also one of the main reasons for Oto being so high-tech compared to the rest of the world.


	7. Chapter 7: Where Two Old Men Duke It Out

Chapter 7: Where Two Old Men Duke It Out

 

"Hi," Jack said when Orochimaru finally opened the doors. He was finding himself awfully lot staring at these lately, though only this time it felt uncomfortable. He wasn't even sure if his idea was a good one or he was going to piss a lot of people off.

Well, he was already there and so was Orochimaru.

"Hello, Colonel. Do you need something?" she said, yellow eyes looking him up and down.

She was wary and Jack wasn't exactly surprised. Orochimaru definitely had things to worry about and no way to deal with them.  
Heck, she probably wasn't even sure if they were up to work with her after the Bingo Book popped out of the woodworks. Which made a lot of things sort of uncertain.

"To talk?" Jack proposed. "If you're feeling up for it. And I want to show you something."

"Huh," Orochimaru raised an eyebrow and stepped away from the doorway. "Come in then."

The atmosphere was definitely much more tense than the last time he was here or maybe it was just him being nervous. Jack honestly had no idea.

"What is that you wanted to talk about?" Orochimaru asked a moment after she shut the doors behind them.

"The same thing we talked about yesterday, more or less," Jack admitted and shifted awkwardly.

The idea popped in his mind somewhere in the middle of picking up the Bingo Book pages from the table.  
Luckily, Daniel was still in the room, talking at General Hammond about one thing or another, while the poor man looked like the migraine attack was about to start.  
He saved his commander and grabbed Daniel, because there were things he needed and Danny probably had a great idea where to find them if they weren't already on his shelf.

"So, uh, here," he said, shoving a bunch of paper pages into Orochimaru's hands.

"You are aware that I still have a lot of trouble with reading, yes?" Orochimaru said. She sounded like she was more baffled than offended, which was a good thing. Pissing off someone who had all the reasons to be agitated would be a bad idea.

"Yeah, sure! That's why there's a lot of space between the lines so you can make notes," he said and pulled yet another item out of his pocket.

It was a walkman and a set of headphones. Kind of old and with visible signs of usage, but Daniel had the right thing on a tape and refused to lend his recorder.

Orochimaru looked at the item and raised his eyebrow.

"You really want me to get familiar with this," she said.

Huh, Jack thought. So, she knew what a walkman was, another little tidbit about the technology on her world, another little bit surprisingly similar to what they came up with.

"Yeah, I think you should," Jack nodded.

"May I ask why?"

Jack shrugged.

"Yesterday we pushed quite a lot," he admitted. "And I think you're not feeling really comfortable right now. So I think sharing a bit of our history might help."

Orochimaru tilted her head to the side, eyebrows still slightly furrowed.

"See," Jack decided that the lack of words was an invitation to continue. "We freaked out a bit about this and that, honestly, I'm still flipping out on the inside, but we have our own fair share of fucked up. So we've put together a list of things that are a no-no."

"What exactly are you trying to do here?" Orochimaru asked. "Prove that my world is filled with amoral barbarians?"

Jack blinked in surprise. Then he shook his head, because dammit! He really hoped he didn't came up like that.

"No, look, it's... you have all that bloody history and you expect people to act certain way, because that's like, normal, or logical, or I don't know, okay? Okay." He was probably failing at this talking thing. It was Daniel's job to talk at people about the culture and history and be all diplomatic and full of understanding. Jack was great at forcing people to react. Usually by pissing them off.

"So, see, me showing off that fancy no-no list is not me bragging about how much more civilized we are," he continued. "It's more like me showing you what we are not going to do."

Orochimaru didn't look particularly impressed. Well, she didn't look much like anything, because she wasn't wearing any hairpins. Loose, black hair were obscuring her face so well Jack was starting to suspect that it was actually the reason why she was letting it grow like that.

Jack sighed and ran fingers through his own hair.  
It started so nicely, just to crash and burn.  
Things probably looked even worse from her perspective.

"I'm going now," he declared, feeling awkward. "You probably had enough of me anyway, so bye?"

xxx

 

Jack wanted to give Orochimaru time to digest all the new information. Heck, they all needed time to sit down and think about the whole situation, but after two days it was starting to be ridiculous.  
They weren't teenagers to tiptoe around each other because of a bad breakup or something of the sorts.  
Therefore at the morning of the third day, Jack sighed deeply and declared.

"I'm done."

Then he headed to the mess hall, grabbed a tray and proceeded to fill it with things. Cup of coffee and two cups of tea. Fruits he remembered Himawari eating before and eggs because Orochimaru liked them, then a bunch more of edibles that wasn't upgraded with a lot of artificial things and a bunch of small honey samples that tasted like an actual honey.

It was quite a trip, but hey, offering food was that sign of peace that usually worked and Daniel once or twice talked a lot about the cultural importance of sharing meal, so it looked like a good idea.  
The only problem he faced were the closed doors in front of him. With both of his hands occupied with holding the tray and no people around to help him out, Jack had little to no choice.

"So, um, hey!" he spoke to the closed doors. "I think you probably already knows I'm here and looking stupid, so can you open the doors?"

Orochimaru of course could choose to simply ignore him and let him stand there like a fool until the drinks got cold and his arms felt like dying.

The doors clicked open, and Orochimaru looked at him with her face completely blank.

"Jack," she said. "What are you doing?"

"I came bearing gifts!" Jack cheerfully declared. "Edible ones and they are getting cold..."

Orochimaru quirked an eyebrow at his not all that subtle suggestion. She let him squirm for a second or so, clearly enjoying how awkward this whole situation was before she finally stepped back, letting him in.

"Damn, I think I got too greedy with all this stuff, my arms are feeling like they're about to fall off!" After making a beeline to the table and putting down the tray, Jack still could feel the weight of it in his joints.

Orochimaru crossed arms on her chest, observing him like a hawk.

"Oh, this is awkward, isn't it?" Jack groaned.

"Just what are you thinking?" instead of answering, Orochimaru asked a question of her own.

"I'm thinking," Jack started slowly. He wished that Daniel was with him, but Daniel was a civilian no matter for how long he was running around waving a gun. He had a mindset of one and couldn't just put it away because the person he was talking with was only familiar with being a part of armed forces. "That you have a lot of reasons to not trust us."

"Which leaves me in a rather odd position, isn't it?" Orochimaru gave him a dry smile.

"On the other hand, you are sitting here on a chance of a lifetime when it comes to securing an alliance," Jack smiled back. He was feeling like sweating bullets, because this was a risky move. A pretty damn stupid too, because he was tossing all of his cards on the table at once, which is generally a no-no. "And strengthening another one, isn't it?"

Jack fully expected for all the hell to break loose now, or at least for the woman to react in some way.

"Oh," she said, with her face carefully blank. "I see."

"Daniel managed to translate a lot of stuff from that bingo Book," Jack nodded, a bit afraid to breathe. "And squirreled away a few pages."

"Why exactly are you telling me this?"

"Honestly, I have no idea,” Jack shrugged. “I want to be fair, I guess? Prove that I'm willing to trust you?”

He gritted teeth in distaste.

“I'm doing an awful job at this talking thing, right?” He wasn't really expecting to get an answer. “I just get why you were keeping all that to yourself. We're just strangers that happened to be kidnapped by the same weirdos and now you're stuck with us and Himawari. That's one hell of a situation to find yourself in.”

It screamed “hostage” quite loudly and if things went bad enough, it could result in a war. Or someone being cut open and picked apart by greedy scientist, who don't see aliens as human enough. There were many more grim options, each single one of them horrible. It was easier, safer to keep mouths shut - and Orochimaru was a soldier, definitely taught how to not tell people things.  
And damn, if not for the book, they wouldn't know anything.

Even now, she was keeping her poker face on. Hairpins or no, she was completely unreadable when she wanted to.  
Jack picked up a cup and held it towards Orochimaru.

After a short moment she took it and took a tentative sip.  
Jack knew it was a new low for him, but he needed something to prove she was human. And human she was indeed.

First her eyes widened, then she put the cup aside with haste, somehow managing to not spill anything before she started coughing.

"Oh, this is vile!"

"I know!" Jack admitted with glee.

"How can you people drink this?"

"You get used to the taste," Jack said, offering a second cup. "Wanna swap for tea?"

"Yes, please!" she greedily reached out. However she stopped before taking a sip and sniffed suspiciously before deciding it was safe to drink.

"Ugh," she grimaced. "The taste of it is still in my mouth."

"It's not that bad!" Jack protested and took a sip of the coffee to prove his point. "See? Tastes just like it's supposed to."

Orochimaru looked at him as if he just drank poison out of his own free will. Then she grabbed the honey and proceed to turn the tea into an unholy, teeth-rotting mixture she liked to drink. 

"See, it's all about caffeine," Jack started to explain. "We need something to pick us up now and then and coffee is working just fine."

Orochimaru blinked.

"It's odd," she said.

"What is?"

"I know this word," she said, still frowning. "Caffeine. It doesn't cause all the troubles like many other names used in chemistry and medicine."

"Huh," Jack blinked. "I guess we use it often enough to make Gate decide it was a very important part of our language. I think we need to rethink our addictions a bit."

"You don't say," Orochimaru commented dryly. She was still hilariously grumpy and Jack needed to use all of his strong will to not crack up right then and there.

Jack caught a movement in the corner of his eye.  
Himawari was in the bathroom doors apparently deciding to peek from her hiding place just a tiny little bit more. She meet his eyes then glanced at Orochimaru.

"Um?" she asked. She didn't need to use words - it was a question even Jack could easily understand. So he decided to answer it.

"Hey squirt! Food is waiting!"

Himawari decided to completely ignore him and continued to wait for an answer from Orochimaru.

She chuckled.

"Come," she said.

With a small happy squeak, Himawari shot from the bathroom and in a blink of an eye she was making herself comfortable right next to the table.

"Are we talking again now?"

Jack's eyebrows shot up.

"What?" Orochimaru glanced at her. "Are you letting your children talk to strangers?"

"And here I was, thinking we are far beyond the strangers stage!" Jack made sure to sound offended.

"My, just what stage do you think we are?" Orochimaru theatrically overdid the glance from under her eyelashes.

Jack couldn't help the snort that escaped him.

With the tense atmosphere finally gone it was finally time for the food.

The eggs were already lukewarm, but they tasted decent on a toast - or he simply could eat anything while Orochimaru wasn't feeling like pointing obvious things out.  
Himawari wasn't even interested in eggs, because she was in the middle of experimenting with dipping fruits in jam and sweet yogurt.  
That one was probably going to return with revenge, because children and lots of sugar wasn't exactly the best idea ever, but hey. He was not going to be the one facing the bouncy horror.

 

xxx

 

Bad things usually started with the loud cacophony of sirens going off around the base, accompanied by the information about unauthorized Gate activation coming from the speakers. Then people were running in every direction, face tense, guns in hands, everyone ready to fight.

Sometimes it all ended with something smashing into the closed iris that protected their end of the Stargate and that was pretty much it.

The other times, a missing team or an ally identified themselves; opening the iris was still a risk, because someone could steal the device or whatever doohickey they were using to get in touch with that particular group and trick the Earth base, but that’s why there were always soldiers with gun pointed in the right direction were stationed just few steps away from the Gate.

Today it was an ally who stepped down the ramp leading towards the Stargate, moving with grace of a seasoned warrior and a solemn expression on the face marked by time and the merciless alien suns.

"Master Bra'tac," General Hammond visibly relaxed after seeing a familiar face. "It is always nice to see you."  
  
"Hammond of Texas," the old Jaffa nodded, returning the greeting. "It is likewise. Sadly, the circumstances of our meeting are as dire as always."

Jack tried to wince only internally. He was trying to like the old Jaffa, mostly for the sake of Teal’c - it was sort of his father figure, a mentor and probably a few things more all smashed into one person - but it was quite difficult. The man had a tendency to pop up only to bring bad news, his plans usually involved a high risk of honorable death and he had a great dislike for Jack and a taste of showing it at every given opportunity. Or maybe it was that mysterious Jaffa sense of humor Jack still couldn’t wrap his head around.

He was still better than Tok’Ra or Tollans.

“Please, follow us to the briefing room then,” General Hammond nodded. “We are grateful for whatever information you are able to share.”

The briefing room wasn’t far; just stairs up, take a turn at the corner and there it was, with a nice bulletproof window overlooking the Stargate.  
However a few steps was everything needed for things to go in a completely unpredictable direction.  
Bra'tac stopped and Jack didn't need to look too far to tell what made him stop in the middle of the corridor.  
  
Orochimaru was staring light back at him. The artificial lights were making her look even more eerie and the black clothes were contrasting vividly with her chalk white skin.  
There was an intrigued smile on her face - or maybe it was amusement, considering the quirked eyebrow, Jack wasn't sure - and her eyes had a metallic shine to them, very alien and very inhuman.  
  
"You know how to make an entrance, eh?" Jack asked, unamused. She wasn’t supposed to enter this level unsupervised and definitely not supposed to do so while alarm was going off, for her own safety and for shit like this one to not happen. He was going to have a talk with whoever was posted on her level.  
  
Orochimaru wasn't blocking their path or getting in their way by just standing there, but at the same time, her presence was impossible to miss.  
  
"My, curiosity simply got better of me," Orochimaru shamelessly admitted and made a step forward, all loose limbs and doll-like, her movement announced by a soft click of the soles of her sandals on the floor.  
  
Jack blinked, suddenly realizing it was probably the first time when the woman decided to make a sound while walking; he got so used to her moving in absolute silence, this little noise appeared to have power of a thunder.  
  
Bra'tac looked at him clearly waiting for an answer of some sort.  
  
"This is Orochimaru," Jack sighed deeply and started the introductions. It was pretty damn awkward, being in the middle of corridor and sort of on the clock, but this was his life and honestly, why was he even hoping for anything better? "We've bumped into her while we accidentally got a trip on a Ha'tak."  
  
"Then you were torn from your world by the Goa'Uld," Bra'tac bowed his head slightly. "I am deeply sorry to hear that. However I am afraid I have to warn you the situation is much more dire than we have previously expected."  
  
"Yeah, well, why don't we go in and swap information where the chairs are? I'm pretty damn sure the General is going to appreciate us joining him," Jack started talking before Orochimaru decided it was a great moment to make new friends or whatever.  
She already managed to invite herself to the meeting; he was sure that Bra'tac would like to know about their new friend... or rather would feel obliged to warn her about Goa'Uld and other dangers of the galaxy.  
  
When they entered the room, General Hammond looked at Orochimaru and then send Jack a dirty glare. However this was not the time nor place to discuss things like authority, not if they didn’t want to look weak or undisciplined in front of a man who valued those things the most. But there was a promise in the air, one pointed both at Jack and Orochimaru, who seemed to didn’t care about it at all.

"I am not going to waste your time," Bra'tac spoke the moment the doors closed behind them, not even bothering to sit down.  
  
"I assume the situation is dire," Generals face darkened.  
  
"It is indeed," Bra'tac nodded solemnly. "You see, the Jaffa have not enough resources to keep all of our people in one place, therefore a net of outposts was carefully set up in secrecy."  
  
"Sort of like Tok'Ra, but smarter?" Jack couldn't help himself but ask.  
  
"We do like to learn on mistakes," Bra'tac diplomatically nodded.  
  
"The best mistakes are those that belongs to someone else," Jack declared.  
  
He received a pointed glare in return, so it was time to shut up and listen.  
  
"We cannot stay in contact with all of the outposts, but we still move between them, sharing information and warnings," Bra'tac continued. "Lately, we have lost contact with four of our outposts."  
  
"Is it possible that your people were unable to inform you that they need to move?" General Hammond asked.  
  
"I wish it is the truth," Bra'tac sighed heavily. "However I visited the sites personally in hopes that I could discover some traces."  
  
His expression darkened.  
  
"What I have found instead... It did not look like the planets the Goa'Uld decided to turn into lifeless wastelands from the orbit, and yet the ground around the Chappa’ai was an image of absolute destruction. The forest hiding one of the bases was entirely burned down, to the point it was reduced to blackened stumps among the askes, the stone terrain hiding another shone like glass."  
  
"Are you suspecting one of the System Lords developed a new type of weapon?"  
  
"Now that would be a new one," Jack grunted.  
  
"Oh?" Orochimaru glanced at him, then turned towards Bra'tac. "Are the Goa'Uld not fond of using new strategies?"  
  
"They were gods to us," Bra'tac explained. "And they thoughts about themselves so. Changing their ways, it would mean that they are not perfect, that they can be endangered."  
  
"Oh my," Orochimaru rested her chin on her hand. Jack was sure he was reading her expression wrong, because she looked like she was disappointed and that would be just plain crazy. "Now you have to change your ways too. And find who is betraying you."  
  
"You are quick to look for the traitors."  
  
"Secret outposts are not made to be found with ease," Orochimaru smiled sweetly and raised a finger of her free hand. "So either a Goa'Uld was extremely lucky and managed to find just the right place on a right planet and managed to capture the right person to extract the information from..."  
She raised another finger and then another one as she was talking, pointing out just how improbable was the more optimistic option.  
  
"Or you have a traitor among your people."

Bra’tac frowned at Orochimaru.

“You are also very quick to judge,” he noted. He sounded grim and disapproving. “What possibly have you to tell, you who do not know our ways nor our people?”

Orochimaru completely ignored the warning in his voice.

“I might not know you, but I know plenty about creating a situation you’ve found yourself in.”

“Worked against infiltrators much?” Jack mused, glancing at Orochimaru. “Or you were the trouble?”

She simply chuckled which was probably as good of an answer as he was going to get. So it was safe to assume that she had not only infiltrated, but managed to successfully spread chaos among the enemy lines, Jack decided.  
Now he had yet another thing to wonder - if her volunteering this information was an act of trust or someone was playing with them?  
  
"You don't need to be so brutal, you know," Jack pointed out and grimacing. Sure, he agreed with her, but Bra’tac looked like he was going to hit his boiling point soon and they were not done talking here.  
  
Jaffa rebellion was a huge mess. It grew rapidly, which caused a lot of chaos simply because many of the rebels belonged to different fractions, served under different System Lords and in the past were set to murder each other more than once. Of course someone wanted vengeance more than anything else in the world and the easiest, most certain way to get it was to simply blab.  
  
"Even if it is as you are saying, I don't think this is the time for a witch hunt," General Hammond shook his head. "Do we know anything about the weapon?"  
  
"I've came here with an early warning," Bra'tac admitted. "I owe you this much. And the Tok'Ra..."  
  
"Don't worry, we're going talk to the Tok'Ra," Jack promised with a painful sight.  
  
The Jaffa were the opponent Tok'Ra faced the most and the old grievances weren't all that old from their perspective. They preferred to stay as far away from the Free Jaffa as it was possible, which forced SGC to juggle both alliances in a very awkward way, just to make sure they won't meet each other and make a mess. Honestly, jack expected better from someone who lived for hundreds of years.  
  
"I am glad," Bra'tac exhaled. "I might not feel much sympathy towards them, but their war is our war."  
  
This time Orochimaru did not comment, at least not out loud. She simply tilted her head to the side and observed the old Jaffa, a smile glued to her face . It would be a perfectly normal, kind smile, if not for the fact that she was barely blinking at all, turning a normal expression into something mildly disturbing.

If Jack was on the receiving end of that stare he would definitely feel unnerved. Even now it was off-putting, like something dragged straight out of a Japanese horror flick… and it was also working on the Old Jaffa. Master Bra’tac had definitely higher resistance to creepy than Jack did, but he couldn’t help but steal a glance now and then at a woman he was trying very hard to ignore, annoyance slowly but surely growing.

Jack was clashing with Master Bra'tac fairly often. His tendency of shielding his emotions with jokes and taunting enemy with sarcasm was rubbing the old Jaffa just in the right way.  
Up until Orochimaru popped out of the woodworks he was sure he was the only one which such talent, but the woman proved him wrong. In no time she had the old warrior reaching his boiling point, causing the stoic face to show a tick under one of the eyes. It was beyond entertaining.

"You are just an arrogant youngling," Master Bra'tac finally snarled, the very moment the meeting was done. "You have no way of knowing the face or true danger, yet you act like you have already learned everything there is to learn!"

Orochimaru didn't react. Or rather she did, but not in a way that was expected; her smile widened and she stepped closer, getting into personal space of the old Jaffa.

"Oh my!" she said, a little bit slower than usual, the bafflement in her voice slightly more noticeable. "You haven't meet me ever before and yet you know everything about me!"

"I am more and more tempted to teach you, for your own good!"

"Hm, what a splendid idea!"

Oh, Jack thought. That was what she was after. For whatever reason.

Jack remembered when he got the bright idea to challenge Bra'tac. The fight took about two seconds and ended up with him on the floor, counting spinning stars.

Now Jack was getting curious. And he wasn't alone; a glance at General Hammond was enough to confirm, that he was not even planning on asking if there was really a time for things like that. Yep, they were totally rolling with it, no matter how childish this decision was.  
It was going to be more fun than Super Bowl.

They had enough self control to move a few levels up to the annoyingly small gym. Even with all the stuff moved outside, there wasn't all that much space when a group of people wanted to watch.  
At least they had Teal’c-approved training staffs that were about the right weight to serve as staff-weapons. Master Bra’tac was a bit reluctant to put away his very real weapon but he did it anyway, mostly for their sake.  
His opponent however...

"A staff, hm?" Orochimaru examined the weapon and then shrugged, letting go of it. It bounced against the wall and stopped a few inches away, never actually falling onto the ground.

"This is awfully whimsical, leaving your weapon just like that."

"I'm simply not overly fond of staffs," Orochimaru merely shrugged.

"Gee, sorry, we haven't figured out that we would need plastic knives around here," Jack sheepishly grinned at Orochimaru.

"Do not worry about little things," Orochimaru smiled back. "I am fine just like that."

"And that's why our friend here called you arrogant."

"He wouldn't be the first one to do so."

"I wonder why..." Jack mused theatrically.

The duel started with Bra'tac fluidly moving into a familiar looking stance and Orochimaru not bothering to do anything but grin at her opponent.  
It was probably downright offensive, because even Teal'c looked like someone jabbed him under the ribs and the old Jaffa was getting close to his boiling point, considering the furrowed brow and slightly reddened face.

Translated to human it was probably that stage when you flip the table and scream obscenities, Jack thought.

Since she was doing nothing, Master Bra'tac decided to move first. His staff swished through air, but Orochimaru simply made a step to the side.  
Jack winced because this was a trap he once walked into; all Bra'tac needed to do now was to move his wrist a little and the staff would return with a vicious strength-

Orochimaru effortlessly ducked under the weapon and then bounced back like a teenage gymnast, her foot almost meeting the face of her opponent. Moment later she was up and facing him once again.

Bra'tac didn't wasting any time rushed at her again, this time faster, stronger.  
The staff missed by mere inch and then again, as Orochimaru stepped in between the attacks, somehow managing to pick the exact moment when just a smallest movement would be enough.  
It looked odd and not really like a fighting style of any sort; just a small step there, a tilt of her head elsewhere, movement barely there and every inch of it served as a taunt: just this little was enough, putting any more effort into this fight wasn’t simply worth it.

"All you do is avoiding," Bra'tac spoke. "It's not going to let you win any battle."

Orochimaru hummed.

"I wonder," she said, smiling too sweetly for it to be honest. "Your stamina is admirable, but for how long you will be able to keep it up?"

Jack raised his eyebrows. Tiring the opponent out was quite a good idea, considering how insane her stamina was. She probably was able to keep on dodging through the entire day and then some, while Master Bra'tac was wasting tiring himself out every time he put any considerable amount of strength behind it. Well, he was a Jaffa and trying to tire a Jaffa out usually would be a pretty damn stupid idea, but Orochimaru was anything but one of a kind.

"A battle is not between two people," Bra'tac pointed out. "Would you be able to dance like that while facing an army?"

"Yes," Orochimaru replied without missing a beat.

"Hubris is going to be your doom!" Bra'tac snarled and rushed forward.

With the staff in a wide grip and a strong push, he made sure this time it was impossible to dodge.

Orochimaru grinned and grabbed the staff the moment it was about to ram into her. then she pushed himself up like a star gymnast until her feet meet the ceiling and then she pushed down, using her own weight as a weapon.  
Bra'tac turned to the side just in time to avoid her knee ramming into his kidney because she was suddenly right behind him.

Bra'tac turned right away, the momentum once again turning the training staff into a deadly weapon, but Orochimaru swirled around him, forcing him to duck his head or get her elbow to the face.

It was so different that what Orochimaru was teaching Himawari. Instead of clear, elegant movement, the woman had a distressing sort of agility to her, using her whole body as a weapon, moving more like a puppet or a ragdoll, with joints bending in almost impossible ways. It probably looked even more off-putting in loose clothing she was so fond of instead of the military t-shirt and cargo trousers.

The staff swished right over Orochimaru's head. As she ducked, she made a vicious kick, that would throw Bra'tac on the ground if the Jaffa didn't managed to step away in time.  
Not giving him any time to regain balance, Orochimaru punched, twisting her entire body to add more force behind the hit.

Bra'tac was forced to take another step back and then he made another - this time on purpose - giving himself enough distance to use his staff.

Orochimaru somehow managed to move right in front of the hit without being smacked and slipped behind Bra'tac, now standing back to back with the old Jaffa.  
Mirroring his movement, Orochimaru grinned, observing her opponent getting frustrated with the corner of her eyes.

Bra'tac narrowed his eyes in annoyance and took a deep breath, holding the staff with both of his hands.  
A blink of an eye later, he leashed out blindly holding the staff with only one hand, while his other fist was ready to strike the escaping opponent.  
The bodies met for the first time with a thunderous clap, as Orochimaru parred the fist with her forearm.

With even wider grin, Orochimaru instantly moved forward, almost managing to headbutt Bra'tac. Her hair actually whisked his face as he stepped back. Slipping away, he managed to grab Orochimaru by the wrist, fingers locking in a powerful grip, fingers digging painfully deep into where the tendons were located.

It made Orochimaru actually react, her fingers twitching and shaking and Jack winced, because ow, that had to hurt!  
Bra'tac moved his other hand on the staff, his fingers immediately finding the spot where the firing mechanism was supposed to be on the real weapon and pushed forward with the edge-

“Death," Orochimaru suddenly declared stopping with her open palm an inch away from Master Bra'tac face. "If that hit connected at this angle, I would be able to break your nose and push the bone far enough to reach the brain tissue."

"You would receive a heavy wound if it was a real battle," Master Bra'tac pointed out, then he stepped away and lowered his weapon.

"Hm, would I?" Orochimaru mused.

Jack wasn’t sure if she was speaking the truth or lying. The uncertainty of it was disturbing, like he had just touched something he really, truly wasn’t supposed to touch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like master Bra'tac, I really do, but his personality is rather... difficult at times, especially when you have a different worldview. And punching him had the added bonus of figuring out how strong are the Jaffa.  
> (You're free to argue, but I'm certain that Bra'tac would be able to whoop a chunin at any given day, unless it's a genjutsu user. )
> 
> Also, Jack totally shoved the Geneva Convention down Orochimaru's throat. It's working surprisingly well, but for a whole different reason. 
> 
> And yes, Orochimaru does count as an old person :P


	8. Chapter 8: Where The Bugs Mess Up This And That

Chapter 8: Where The Bugs Mess Up This And That

 

Himawari looked up at the clock again and Jack could do nothing but to curse inwardly.  
It all started with a very convenient and sudden opening in one of the teams.

Orochimaru decided to jump at the chance.

They couldn't exactly say no - they let Teal'c to join their flag team right after he decided to betray his own people and so called god; shortly after said god attacked the SGC in person with Teal'c standing at his right hand the whole time.

Compared to his situation, Orochimaru's situation was much less troublesome.  
She was simply from a world that was only recently came to understanding that morality was an important issue and had no reason whatsoever to stab them in the back.

After some consideration, General Hammond decided to take the chance and instructed Jack to have a meeting with the unit commander, to gossip with the man about the unexpected addition to his team.

Major Lorne himself was quite new to the whole travelling to the other planets thing, but he was acclimating with surprising ease.  
He also had a very healthy instincts; he would rather stand back and paint the pretty, alien thing instead of moving towards it and putting his hands on it.  
That alone made him the safest person to send to the sites where the probability of bumping into something alien, shiny and dangerous was relatively high. Starting with the ones nobody really wanted to go on.

"That was supposed to be a boring thing," Jack muttered quietly enough so the girl didn't hear him. "Of course it got complicated."

Teal'c eyed him, slowly chewing a chunk of toast.

"Is this the curse the Tau'Ri are so fond of mentioning?" He asked, finally swallowing and then starting down the rest of the bread with distaste.  
It probably tasted just how it looked like - miserable. There was a reason why Jack was slowly returning to Fruit Loops - that, while tasting like sugar and artificial coloring, at least had some satisfying crunch to it.

"You know it's real, big guy!" Jack tapped the Jaffa with his fist. "It always happens! Especially when you are babysitting the eggheads!"

"Excuse me?" Daniel grunted at him from over his coffee.

"Admit it, Danny. The moment you find some ruins all hell breaks loose. It's a rule."

Daniel rolled his eyes and took another bite of his sandwich. He chewed thoroughly, giving Jack the time to contemplate the already cold coffee sitting on the table in front of him.  

Usually when he was about to take the first sip of hot, strong coffee that didn't came out of the coffee machine the alarm was going off or something else was going on, forcing Jack to leave his drink.  
This time he was hoping to jinx things into happening, putting an actual effort into brewing his coffee just right, picked up a donut to accompany it and waited.  
People passed by him, his cup stopped steaming, his donut was getting dry and still, no sound of alarm coming.

"Said the guy who put his face in an unknown device,” Daniel pointed out, looking at him, clearly judging.

Jack grunted and took a sip, grimacing slightly. It tasted like any cold coffee would, but since he already put so much effort into it...

"It happened once and I made wonderful friends because of that!"

Mostly because when the Ancient memory bank decided to override his brain, his survival instinct managed to stay intact and used the gained knowledge to  MacGyver the way to salvation and little grey aliens.

Himawari looked at the clock again and made another small, unhappy noise. At some point she found him sitting here and staring at the coffee and decided to join in.

Jack sighed. Lorne's team IDC became invalid a few hours ago, yet there was no sign on them or the archaeology team. Sure, the Goa'Uld lately were too occupied by keeping their own armies in check because of the constant danger of rebellion. Not many Jaffa were trusted enough to be sent outside of the territories of their masters. Even less were sent to empty, seemingly useless places.

On the other hand, people were talking. First, there was Bra’tac and his tale about the new player on the field, then SG-5 returned bringing hushed tales of power and magic.  
Humans spewing fire like a dragon, honestly...

"Just what could go wrong? They were making photos of the same pile of rocks they were wandering around since a month ago!" Jack continued to argue with Daniel, because it was much, much better than sitting silently and counting passing minutes.

The site was old and definitely abandoned, considering the amount of foliage that dropped on their heads the moment they stepped out of the Stargate; the activation disrupted the branches and tore the tangled structure of the wild grapevine.

It wasn't the most pleasant welcome, but it was much, much better than bunch of unfriendly faces that felt like murder. The further inspection of the site proved that it was abandoned and forgotten and the ruins, while wast, were lacking the murderous traps they were almost expecting to step right into.  
They continued to visit the place, each time sending out a team of soldiers just to be safe and up until now nothing bad had happened and the mission started to look more like a paid picnic than anything else.

"Maybe the guys decided to finish the work once and for all?"

"And didn't call home to tell us the happy news?"

This was an army for goodness sake and people couldn't just go off their merry way like that. Even the civilians - they all had a lengthy contract describing all the do's and don't's and while they couldn't predict everything, Jack was pretty damn sure this situation was covered.  
Besides, he doubted that anyone would want to end up stranded on the other side of the Stargate, especially Orochimaru. She was way too reasonable for pulling out something like this.

Jack once again eyed Himawari and sighed deeply. She desperately needed a distraction of some sort.

"Come on, squirt!" he didn't put a false cheer in his voice, because while still a kid, Himawari was pretty damn smart and would caught on instantly.

She perked up, hearing her name. She looked fairly surprised, but not wary or anything, which definitely was a good thing.

"Wanna come with me visit doctor Fraisier?"

Himawari furrowed her brow.

"Wouldn't she be angry for bugging her?"

"Nah," Jack waved his hand dismissively. "Lately it was calm around here and all she's doing is dealing with the paperwork. Honestly, it's going to count as saving her!"

She hummed, clearly thinking about the proposition.

It was definitely tempting; Janet liked Himawari and probably was the only person around who had any idea what she was going through right now. Janet's daughter was an offworlder too and it took her awhile to get used to the new world. Now Cassie was a fairly well adjusted teenager, with a group of friends and problems that come along with puberty.

"Alright!" Himawari made up her mind.

They walked for a moment in silence.

"Something's up?" Jack asked, noticing her stealing glances at him.

"Dad has a lot of paperwork too," she said. "I’m not supposed to talk about it with strangers, but you already know who my dad is, so it's okay?"

"I guess it is, squirt."

It was a nice sign that she trusted them enough to talk a bit about home, even if it still was mildly disturbing that he was taught to keep her mouth shut.

Janet indeed was hunched over paperwork, probably trying to deal with all the paperwork she was behind on filling - a lot of people working for SGC were behind on their homework. Papers just were much less important than a new set of alien invaders or whatever else was happening this week.

"Hi there! We've come to rescue you!"

"Are you planning on filling these for me, colonel?" Janet raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.

"Nah, just a temporary rescue!"

He had enough of his own things to fill and he didn't need any favors desperately enough to volunteer for even more paperwork. And she was already clearing her desk, putting everything back in place and in nice, even piles, marking the place where she was finished.  
She was so, so done with the paperwork it was amusing to see.

Janet wasn't finished shuffling around even after all the files were put in nice, even heaps of paper; with a proud smile she produced a few books and a box of crayons.

“I was meaning to give it to you, sweetheart!” She said, handing Himawari the books. “Our world is very confusing at times and these really helped Cassie.”

“ It did?” Himawari looked down at the think pile of colorful books in her hands. “That's good! But she doesn't need them?”

Jack managed to not make any stupid noises, but it was hard not to smile.

“It's alright,” Janet reassured her. “She’s a big girl now and had the time to learn this and much more.”

“Oh,” Himawari blinked. “Okay then. Are you from another world too?”

Suddenly, it was a fight to keep the smile on.

“I was born here,” Janet softly explained. “Cassie was found by Jack and his team when she was little and all alone.”

Because a Goa'Uld that fancied themselves to be scientist killed everyone but her.

“That's sad. I'm sorry.”

“Don't be, sweetie. It's not your fault!”

“I know,” Himawari nodded. “But feeling for people is very important. Daddy said it makes them less alone.”

Jack found himself blinking in surprise. It sure was a sweet sentiment, even if a weird thing to teach a kid.

“Your dad sounds like a very smart man,” Janet said.

“He is!”

“The guy sure sounds interesting,” Jack muttered quietly, when Himawari occupied herself with the books. She looked cute, studying every page with an expression of absolute concentration on her face. Still, he couldn't quite get her dad out of his head once he appeared in there.

“You think I should try and pull something more out of Orochimaru once, she's, well, back.”

"You think something happened?" Janet whispered back.

"Probably," he replied. "That Lorne guy was doing just fine until now. And Orochimaru is or was military too, she knows you don't just go and wander around instead of reporting when you're supposed to."

"He's not the only smart person on that team."

"Yep," Jack nodded. "She's something else, isn't she?"

"That she is," she exhaled heavily. "The more I'm talking to her, the more infuriating the language barrier becomes."

"It must be hard to nerd out like that," Jack nodded wisely.

Janet looked at him with a very unimpressed expression on her face, clearly waiting for him to stop.

Jack raised his hands in defeat.

"What is so frustrating is the fact that I'm more and more sure that in some ways they are much more advanced than I've expected them to be."

"...Orochimaru still acts like she's going to steal our MRI machine," Jack felt the need to point out. "And not shiny and new tech. That's on the meh side."

"Things don't need to develop the same way everywhere," Janet replied. "However Orochimaru was fairly tight lipped when it came to explaining how her civilization deals with the same issues."

"Tight lipped is like the word of choice when it comes to describing Orochimaru," Jack snickered. "But you sure it wasn't just the language barrier striking again? Orochimaru is sometimes very aaargh! because of it and then she looks like flipping tables."

Janet snickered. She probably heard and saw much more than he did, considering the fact she was trying to get some science-related discussion going on, while Jack was just satisfying his whims.

“She definitely is,” Janet shook her head, as if remembering something especially entertaining.

Then she sighed.

Jack really hoped it was just some mishappening and not anything serious.

 

xxx

 

The team looked just fine.

Sure two of the eggheads were awkwardly limping and everyone was covered in enough dust to make them look like they were wearing desert camouflage uniforms and that included Orochimaru.

Grey and cobwebs didn't look all that good on her, but it also was a great source of amusement; she wasn't an untouchable supernatural creature after all.

"I am relieved to see you all here," General Hammond said. "But I would like to know what in the world had happened."

"There was a cave-in," one of the limping scientists chirped cheerfully and realized what he did. With an embarrassed yelp, he blushed hard enough for the color to be actually visible under all the dirt.

"A cave-in?" General asked. "How in the world all of you managed to get caught in a cave-in?"

Major Lorne coughed.

Jack wasn't sure if it was due to inhaling dust or a sign of feeling very stupid.

"Well, we had a warning that the floor was unstable, but..."

"But these idiots decided to go forward anyway," the not-limping egghead shamelessly added, leaning heavily onto the tripod.

That, Jack decided, was how vengeance looked like.  
The poor sap was roped into carrying the luggage of his limping friends and now was too tired to care about covering for their dumb assess.

"Um, she's not a geologist-!" Limp number 2 started explaining.

"And I've told you that I've destroyed enough building to tell when you simply need to kick it to make the whole structure fall down," Orochimaru gritted her teeth, but otherwise didn't try to do anything. Even the smallest movement caused clouds of dust to appear. The last thing she needed in this situation were watering eyes.

"See and that's why you are supposed to listen when a lady is talking to you!"

"Not much experience with that he had, I fear," Not-limp snarked. "Not that he gave himself a chance for that."

"She's like twenty!"

"Oh my, thank you!" Orochimaru's eyebrows rose up in bafflement.

And that's how a village market looked like, Jack thought dryly. With everyone shouting over everyone else, snarling, demanding attention and simply filling the space with noise and chaos.

General Hammond took a deep  breath and clapped his hands.

"People, people!" his raised voice was enough to caught everyone's attention.

"This is not the place!”

That was enough to remind everyone where they were and what they were supposed to be doing instead of acting stupid.

“Is there anything that needs to be told right now?” General asked and waited a few seconds for an answer. “Then go put yourself in order and report in twenty, I want to know exactly what happened without pointing fingers!”

Considering the glares, it was going to be pretty damn difficult, Jack decided.

Lorne somehow managed to shepherd his team towards the doors and up the stairs, where they were passed by Himawari.

What in the world was even she doing here and how she managed to get down here in the first place?

While he was dealing with the need to tear a second one to everyone who was somehow involved in letting a kid down to the Gate Room while the alarm was going off, Himawari cheerfully skipped down the stairs and made a beeline towards Orochimaru.

“You're here!” she said happily, stopping right in front of Orochimaru.

Then Himawari furrowed her brow and tensed up, hands closed in fists and backs stiff as a board.

“You're late!” She accused and pointed a finger at Orochimaru, so there's no mistake who was at fault there.

Jack found himself fighting a smile despite everything, because it was an adorable sight.

Orochimaru, looking equally baffled as he felt, bending over so she could look the girl in the eye without forcing her to look up.

“I guess I am,” she said with a smile. “Sometimes thing don't go as planned and people need to spend more time to get around the problem.”

"You have cobwebs in your hair," Himawari pointed out, cheeks still puffed with anger.

"That I do," Orochimaru replied calmly, letting the girl have the satisfaction.

"I bet there are spiders too," Himawari stated, taking her small childish vengeance with vicious satisfaction.

The reaction was hard to miss. Orochimaru shuddered just to stiffen up  like a board with the oddest expression Jack ever saw on her face.

Jack blinked and when he opened his eyes, she was already moving past by him. Moment later, she disappeared behind the corner.

“... seriously?”

"...I told you there were spiders!" Himawari declared proudly and demonstrated the inside of her hands, where one was sitting, appearing to be mildly confused. Then again, Jack knew little to nothing about spiders, besides being able to tell which one was bad news.

This one looked safe-ish, then again, it was a space-spider so it could be anything.  
Still, the kid was unusually calm about something crawling on her.

"You're quite brave, aren't you?" he asked the girl.

"Brave?" Himawari blinked at him.

"Yeah!" Jack grinned. "You've seen how she darted away? Many people are afraid  of little buggers like your new friend!"

"Oh," she nodded slowly and looked own at the spider, who was carefully using two front legs to make some sense of the new surroundings, poking around, but not moving much otherwise. "Mommy said it's not nice to kill bugs. It'll make her friend very sad. So I don't?"

"That's... very nice," Jack hummed. So, was the mom person big on ecology? Or was it just because she liked someone with really fragile feelings?

"I think the needs to introduce your friend to our entomologist," he continued carefully. "See, he'll not be very visible on the floors here!"

"Entymolo-?" Himawari asked, slightly confused by the unfamiliar word.

"We are learning all about other world, you know that right?" after receiving a nod, Jack continued. "it would be silly to not learn about bugs and insects, right? They're very important part of the nature after all."

Himawari nodded once again.

"Come on then," Jack straightened up. "And make sure the spider doesn't fall off."

He definitely wasn't in the mood to chase after the little bugger and it sure would end with it if the critter managed to get away from the girl.

The entomology lab was one of the few places that had their own airlock. The last thing the base needed was being overrun with alien bugs. And chemicals, since the lack of space under the mountain caused them to shove the biochemistry lab in the far end of this corridor, hidden behind yet another airlock. Jack was pretty damn sure neither group of Eggheads was very happy about this solution. At least there were plans of moving this and that to the alpha side, once the things on the planet would let them do something more that sneaking out for a picnic during work hours.

The lab smelled funny - a mix of the characteristic, formaldehyde stench and something equally stinky that was used to preserve biological samples.

It also looked like someone was trying to beat Danny in the 'Artistic Mess' category and was doing pretty damn good job at it.  
There were books everywhere, unceremoniously piled on the floors along with sheets of loose paper, while  the pulpits of the tables were filled with dead bugs framed in glass, sometimes completely taken apart, sometimes completely whole, with a lot of notes in latin around it.

Jack didn't know much about bugs, but he was fairly sure he recognized some of them - and others looked like some other samples looked like they came from Florida, considering the size of the dead mosquito tapped to the piece of paper.  
Right next to it was the alien one and Jack shuddered at the memory.

The planet looked just like any other, safe for the very high oxygen levels compared to good, old Earth, but was otherwise pleasantly cool.

it looked nice, it smelled nice - somewhat like freshly chopped pine with a bunch of herbs thrown into the mix - and it was a very pleasant stroll up until the mosquitoes showed up. Big enough to actually grab them, wings furiously flapping in the air with a noise that was more similar to a choking engine rather than the characteristic, high-pitched noise everyone was so familiar with.

They retreated like any sane people would, screaming and beating some sort of a record at punching the home address on the DHD and jumped as fast as it was possible, deciding the MALP would be just fine on its own.

One of the buggers managed to follow them through the Gate. It caused a whole lot of panic and proved that everyone could shriek like a little girl given a good motivation to do so. Luckily, nobody started shooting blindly trying to take down the monstrous alien mosquito, because with so many people around it could end up very, very ugly.

The mosquito, after what felt like an eternity and wasn't even a quarter in reality, dropped on the floor entirely on it's own.

That was the moment when a bug specialist was dragged into the world of secrecy and ridiculous amount of paperwork, with instant space travel happening now and then.

Said bug specialist was a rather plump woman with peppery hair tightly netted into a complicated and rather pretty net of braids sticking flat to her head and a ridiculous amount of energy.  
She was also a big fan of the mALP that was left on the Bug Planet and regularly called him, downloading all the video data it managed to record. When the accumulator was about to die, she showed up with something that looked like a cross between diving suit and a chain mail and went off to do the job herself. The suit was probably still stored somewhere at the base, waiting for yet another moment to shine. Jack hoped it was far, far into the future, where he's back at enjoying his retirement. 

"Hello?" Jack called, while Himawari decided all the specimens behind the glass were much more exciting than waiting for him to do things. At least the alien bug didn't look like it was planning on leaving her hands.

"Colonel O'Neill!" a voice came from behind the closed doors before they even clicked open. "You're the last person I was expecting to see here!"

Jack slightly raised eyebrows. It was sure nice to be recognized and all, but sometimes he had no clue who he was talking too and it all awkward.

Like now, because his brain failed to provide a name to the bug-specialist.

"I sometimes pop up in weird places, Doc!" he grinned, hoping it was enough.

"Please," the woman rolled her eyes. "It's April. Everyone's here a doctor and that's includes a whole bunch of soldiers."

All too true. There were times, when Jack was entering a room filled with soldiers and understood as much of the conversation as when talking to Carter who was excited over some new idea: pretty much nothing.

"Something came back through the Gate," Jack explained. "It doesn't act very murderous compared to our last guest, but better be safe than chase after the thing though the whole base again."

"From what I've heard it wasn't you who were doing the chasing," April snickered. "So, where's my specimen?"

Himawari squinted at the woman suspiciously, not eager to present the bug, still cradled between her palms. The symmetric marks on her face made it look even more adorable.

"Are you going to chop him into pieces?"

April raised her eyebrows, but then she smiled.

"Nah," she said. "I think it's more interesting to watch the insect move around than pin them to the piece of a cardboard."

"Oh," Himawari blinked. "Okay."

Making up her mind, the girl slowly opened her hands, demonstrating the bug, lazily crawling along her fingers, completely unbothered by being in an unfamiliar place.

"Hello, beautiful!" April smile widened with obvious satisfaction as her eyes locked on the small, black alien being.

"So, you know what it is?"

"I've just looked at it," April glanced at him and it was enough to make Jack feel pretty damn stupid. "I might have a very general idea, but that's it for the moment."

"So, you're going to put him in a jar?" Jack asked. "Should I go check if they have any in the kitchen?"

"Don't be silly, Colonel," April shook her head. "I have an empty aquarium in my office."

"That's definitely better than a jar," Jack nodded. "Why empty?"

"Because collecting specimens of alien life forms is not an actual priority?" April rolled her eyes. "The last living specimens I got my hands on was the lice SG-5 caught by being too diplomatic with the locals."

Jack tried to not chuckle. At least not too much. His team slept in so many dirty places and crawled through thrash enough times it was a small miracle it wasn't them returning with the parasites.

"Well, at least you have your MALP friend out there in the Bug World," Jack said. "And now this little guy. Whatever he is. Or she. I have no idea."

"We'll make sure to introduce you once we know," April nodded. "Or you actually want to see with your own eyes how very fascinating it's all going to be?"

Jack grimaced.  
Considering the amount of books lying everywhere, this work is even less fascinating than what Danny was doing.  
Himawari, on the other hand had stars in her eyes and was flushed with excitement.

"Can I help?"

"Sure, I guess..." April said slowly and looked at Jack.

"We might go," Jack proposed a way out. "We bumped here to hand over our friend, if you're busy-"

She gave him a rather deadpan look.

"I don't mind if she stays a bit with me," April declared.

Jack chewed the inside of his cheek, thinking.  
It was sort of a bad thing to do to drop the kid on the random person at the first chance.

On the other hand, he wanted to check how Orochimaru was doing. There was a possibility that the answer was "not well" and Jack wasn't sure how she felt about showing weakness.

On the other... People sometimes had weird reaction when you caught them in their weak moments. Sometimes plain miserable, sometimes violent.  
Orochimaru definitely liked to play with cards close to her chest and Jack doubted it was any different when it came to showing weakness.  
Himawari definitely didn't need to see her accidental caretaker, the only person from home, flipping her shit. At least not now, when the woman was the only connection to home.

"What do you think, squirt?" Jack asked. A kid or no, the kid still should have something to say about how she's going to spend her time. She was not a potato sack.

"Can I?" she asked, still flushed with excitement. "It sounds fun!"

"Sure you can!" April smiled jovially and eyed Jack. "And the Colonel is going to be nice enough to bring us snacks and coffee, right?"

"Sure I am!" Jack grinned right back. This was a little price for supervising a child for awhile and he didn't mind doing a little bit of room service; both Carter and Danny had a tendency to forget about the whole world when they were working, so it wasn't anything new for Jack.

Room service, he could totally deal with.

“Any special wishes?”

“Anything that's coffee is fine, colonel. I rarely can tell the difference anyway.”

“Some people would call statement like that a blasphemy.”

“And we both know where some people can shove their opinion,” April shrugged. “Shoo now, before I change my mind.”

Jack obediently walked himself out.

 

With Himawari deeply entertained by the bug-lover who found another person that shared her weird, weird hobby, Jack decided it was time to check on Orochimaru.

Honestly, it was becoming a new habit of his, going there to stand a little bit stupid in front of the doors and hoping that the new alien was doing fine and still felt friendly. It usually was Daniel's job, but Orochimaru seemed to not like him all that much. According to Danny, Jack was much more familiar and easier to relate to because of their sort of shared military background.

Orochimaru had to go and visit the infirmary at some point, not to mention report her bit about the whole cave in mess of a mission... if she managed to put herself back together that's it. For someone capable of keeping their cool while being kidnapped by aliens, Orochimaru lost her shit in a rather spectacular way.

Jack knocked at the familiar door, but there was no answer, so after a few moments of waiting Jack shamelessly leaned against the door and put his head to the wooden surface, listening in.

There was a muffed sound of running water coming from behind the closed doors, so she probably wasn't ignoring him on purpose. Not with that crazy hearing of hers.  
Jack looked at his watch and then decided to check if the doors were locked or simply closed.

If she spend all that time under shower she was probably all wringly like a raisin, he thought with amusement.

Though him having his laughs wasn't what was really important right now.

The doors clicked softly, letting him in without a fuss.

Carefully stepping in, Jack looked around.

The room looked just like it did yesterday, the impersonal appearance gone, replaced by artistic mess of books and notes made in shaky, childish handwriting and the spaghetti lookalike doodles of Orochimaru - according to Daniel her writing skills were better while using English letters, even if writing actual words was still a great challenge.

Well, there were the notes and crayons and a bit of other stuff the staff managed to gather just to supply Himawari with whatever a kid her age should need.

Then there were Orochimaru's shoes, obviously dropped in hurry, about two feet away from each other.

Jack raised an eyebrow at the sight.

It was a bit amusing, but it was also the first time he saw her shoes up close.

For if not for the fact that the toes were open, he would swear these were military shoes, with high-quality leather keeping the ankles from twisting in awkward way. A set of complicated looking belts was adding even more protection through hell if Jack knew how even to put these on.

Behind the shoes, there was a plastic bag filled with dirty, dusty clothes, balled up in hurry. It was taped shut.

"Well, someone's going for an overkill," Jack muttered.

On the other hand it was also smart and not something the members of the SGC weren't doing all the time; they just used  the communal showers and dumped the dirty laundry in the bin, hoping the right set of clothing would come back to them at some point.  
The laundry duty was always a mess and Jack was glad that he ranked high enough to not be dumped with it even as a punishment.

The water was still running.

Jack doubted that Orochimaru would take kindly to an intruder taking her by a surprise, so it was yet again the time to announce his presence.

"Hey, I hope you didn't drown in here!"

There was a second or two before the response came.

"Jack? Why are you here?"

"Checking if you have drowned or just turned into a raisin!" He cheerfully replied.

"My, I’ve took this long?"

"Yep!"

The water was turned off and the bathroom doors opened a split of a second later.

Jack made a small startled noise and swirled like a ballerina, just to not face the woman who had obviously no time to throw anything on.

"What are you doing?"

"Not looking!" Jack declared loudly, his voice cracking just a little bit in the middle like he was fourteen again.

There was another moment of silence. Well, almost silence, because Orochimaru was dripping on the floor.

"I am wearing a towel," she declared.

"Nice! That's nice, towels are nice, but I still would rather not look!"

"It is your own fault," Orochimaru coldly stated, passing right behind him and opening the closet.

"Yeah, it's hard to not agree with that," Jack sighed, listening to the shifting behind him. "You ok?"

Orochimaru stopped moving and took a slow, deep breath, keeping the air in for awhile before exhaling with a sigh.

"I admit, my reaction was less than stellar," she said.

Jack wondered how exactly he was supposed to answer. Tell her that her case of flipping  shit was a mild one? That she was doing just fine? Bring her a beer?

"I am not fond of losing control," Orochimaru continued, her voice growing stern. "Especially over such silly things."

"Hey! You're human, humans get emotional over the dumbest stuff, that's human!" Jack protested.

Orochimaru snorted.

"Besides, you've had an adventure and just returned to the safety of the base," Jack kept on babbling. "It's natural that you've loosened a bit."

Orochimaru made a noise that wasn't exactly an agreement. But she didn't call him an utter fool either, so Jack decided to count it as a small victory.

What wasn't a victory was the fact that she had that odd ability to move without making any sounds at all and apparently it also included putting clothes on; he couldn't hear anything, even if a rough fabric or at the very least the bloody zipper were supposed to make some sort of a noise.

Jack took a peek with the very corner of his eye. There was more black on her than white, so he deemed it to be safe to look.

The t-shirt was indeed on. She was sitting on one of the beds, with legs curled underneath and with a towel on he shoulders.

Jack exhaled with relief and then helped himself to the chair.

"We were taught that showing emotions was a sign of weakness," she softly explained, carefully drying her hair.

"That's kinda... weird," Jack decided to be diplomatic instead of calling bullshit the moment he saw it.

"The smallest thing might be used against you," Orochimaru smiled at him from under the towel.

It almost looked like she was making fun of him. Only she wasn't.

"You know, a hair dryer would work better," he pointed out.

Orochimaru winced.

"I prefer to not damage my hair."

"So, you prefer to catch sniffles because you're walking around with your head wet?" Jack snickered. "I mean, it's an alien world to you. Alien germs."

Orochimaru had one of the sourest face expressions Jack even saw, as if some warm air was a very gross thing.

However she admitted that he was right and with a small grunt, she stood up and made the whole two steps to the closet. She dug out the dryer, still in the cardboard box and glared at it with distaste.

She was only a tiny little bit more fizzy than usual and pissed off  quite a lot about it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, I am very much accepting of the fillery, cracky episode where Orochimaru was not the biggest fan of bugs.  
> ...  
> Honestly speaking, we are talking about someone, who spend quite a lot of time rotting alive. I suspect there was at least one very disturbing adventure including a bunch of insects. The experience definitely wormed itself up deep into Orochimaru.  
> (And Kabuto, who yet again had to deal with all this mess)
> 
> Now let's guess: when Orochimaru is actually honest and when he's simply playing along to get the best results?


	9. Interlude I: Village Across The Sky

Interlude: Village Across The Stars

 

Since he was a boy, Naruto Uzumaki knew that the Hokage job wasn't just sitting in a fancy hat and cloak and looking awesome.

He remembered the Third, who seemed to be always hunched over some papers, barely leaving the Tower. And Tsunade - he saw her waay too many times just after she had a nap on the desk and her angry glare dared him to say anything about the red mark on her cheek and messed up hair.

Now he had the job of his dreams, his face was carved into the mountain site and he felt like crying into the pile of papers that lied in front of him. There were others too, but that one was conveniently sized while all the others were towering over him like the giant, stone copy of his very own face was towering over the entire village.

"I'm going to start using clones for this, I swear!" Naruto groaned.

If it was cheating, then so what? He would just reserve his original body for the tasks that were actually important and leave all the little stuff like D-ranks either to copies of himself or even other people.

(He learned his lesson about setting clones on dealing with all the missions, A and S-rank included and it was a painful one. Shikamaru still was reminding him of the mess he managed to create just in a few hours and Naruto wasn’t brave enough to try his luck again)

But if he was careful and put the clones only to the most basic task and maybe set up one of them to just read through whatever the rest put together before calling the day done… Nobody had done that even before, but then this whole world had changed in a way that never happened before either. It was a good change, so why not follow the suit...?

Naruto sighed, daydreaming about having free time. Just for a little bit, just to stop being a stranger in his own home, when the doors crashed open and several people barged into his office.

"Deepest apologies!" One of the ANBU shouted, before trying to grab whoever decided to pay him a visit that wasn't scheduled.

It... wasn't going too well. For a group of four ANBU, his men were doing a rather miserable job at subduing the intruder, who was avoiding them with an admirable amount of skill and inhuman agility. The absolutely impossible angles that person was able to bend and the fact that the joins appeared to be changing their length looked disturbingly familiar and an image of dark, gloomy forest and a giant snakes flashed before his eyes.

"Go away!" The intruder demanded, shouting loudly, voice way too high-pitched to belong to an adult. "I don't have time for this, I need to talk to the Hokage!"

Naruto blinked away the image of a person he faced as a terrified kid and looked at a boy in blue with a stubborn grimace on his face and determination in bright, yellow eyes.

"It sounds important," he decided, because if Orochimaru’s kid decided to break into the Hokage tower definitely should have a decent reason to do so. Well, any kid committing breaking and entering should have a reason to do so, but then again, once upon a time Naruto was a kid too.

The ANBU stopped immediately and bowed, before retreating back into their favored hiding spots.

Orochimaru's kid breathed heavily, staring at him with eyes wide-open, hair wild and sweat dripping down his forehead all the way to his chin.

"So?" Naruto smiled, trying to sound nice and relaxed. It was a bit difficult, considering it was Orochimaru's kid who decided that something was important enough to just barge in into his office, ANBU be damned.

"What is it?"

The boy - Mitsuki, Naruto managed to recall the name - blinked, like he still didn't believe that he managed to get this far, before the sense of urgency forced the words to come out of his mouth.

"My parent found Himawari!"

The cold dread went down his spine and filled veins with ice even before Naruto managed to process what he just heard.

Orochimaru had his daughter. Orochimaru. Why? How? Since when? How did this happened? What for?

"What."

Mitsuki licked his lips.

"My parent decided to visit the wasteland, where the battle with Otsutsuki Katsuya took place," he started explaining, talking so fast he was almost tripping on the words, eyes still wide and wild. "There, he stumbled upon a structure that wasn't there before, something big enough to be impossible to miss."

"What structure?" Naruto asked when Mitsuki stopped to breathe.

"A big one, not important!" the kid hissed. "There were people too, armed and in a heavy armor, speaking a language my parent couldn't identify."

Naruto furrowed his brow.

"Orochimaru thinks they are connected to Kaguya?" He probably should stop right here and question Orochimaru’s sanity for letting a child know something like that in the first place, like a reasonable village leader should do, but he wasn’t feeling reasonable at this moment.

"I have no idea," Mitsuki shook his head. "But they were interested in talking prisoners, so parent decided to let them led him into the structure, since there's always the option to use me as a voice piece..."

He raised one arm up and a very familiar, white snake slipped out of his sleeve, wrapping itself around his wrist.  
Naruto made a mental note to question the boy further about what his parent was contacting him about and how often. Once again, his priorities for the moment didn’t include being reasonable at all.

"Inside, there were other people taken prisoner too," Mitsuki continued. "A group of four, all of them donning a military uniforms parent couldn't identify and speaking yet another foreign language. And your daughter.”

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking, or at least trying to think. His head felt like it weight a ton and then some, brain feeling way too slow and unable to come up with anything that made any sense.

"What is Orochimaru planning to do now?" he asked, forcing himself to talk slowly, to make sure that his voice wasn’t overly aggressive.

"One of the foreigners is attempting to communicate. He seems to know our language, or at least a variation of it, but it takes time."

"So... Orochimaru told you to  report where Himawari is?" Naruto felt like this conclusion was way too optimistic to be true.

It was Orochimaru after all, a person who loved to pull strings and make plans to stab others in the back just because.

Mitsuki nodded.

"Parent promises to keep an eye on her until you or your people pick her up," he said. "He had no chance of figuring out the abilities of the kidnappers, so he decided against escaping for now.”

Naruto took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly.

“I assume you’re still in contact with your parent?”

Mitsuki nodded.

That solved a lot of problems for him.

"Wait," Naruto said and put his hands together in the Ram seal.

Soon, there was a dozen of him swarming the office, all of the clones as serious as he was feeling.

Mitsuki blinked, but obediently waited.

Most of the clones darted out of the window almost immediately, each one of them holding a different mission.

"You might continue," Naruto said to the boy. "I'm making a retrieval party as we speak, the clones would disperse one at a time to spread all the new information you parent manage to obtain."

Mitsuki carefully nodded.

"I'm staying here, then?"

"With a bunch of me, yes, you are," Naruto nodded, trying to smile reassuringly. He was surprised how difficult it was. "You are strong, but not strong enough to fight on the same level as the people I'm gathering. I want you to be safe."

Away from the battle, the boy would not need protection, therefore he would not distract Naruto and any of his people from the most important task - learning as much as they could about the potential danger and saving Himawari.

Naruto swallowed; the fact that the order of things put his daughter not in the first place when it comes to the importance left a bitter taste in his mouth.  
Then there was the fact that the boy was also a hostage, a measurement to make sure Orochimaru will continue to cooperate even with such important things right in his hands.  
Or at least Naruto hoped so.

"Keep talking to my clones," Naruto ordered the boy. "I'm going forward, along with the rest of the group, I want to get there as soon as possible."

Mitsuki licked his lips and nodded again.

With a corner of his eye, Naruto noticed just how small the boy appeared, standing in the Hokage office, surrounded by the Shadow Clones and the ANBU, but he was already dashing through the familiar roofs of the village, finally feeling more like himself again.

Naruto wasn't even behind the border of Konoha, when Sai and Ino joined him, not wasting breathe to talk; a sharp nod was enough, since the clones told them everything they needed to know.

The other clones would soon reach Yamato and Kakashi, who would join them closer to the old battlefield, while Hinoe and her - their, no matter how many years passed Naruto still wasn’t used to the thought -  father would approach the site from different direction, each of them accompanied by two clones. Using Byakugan to scout was always a good idea and their ability to see through walls would definitely make finding both enemies and Himawari much, much easier.

Naruto wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the so called structure was impossible to miss, looking both absolutely out of place and perfectly fitting into the surroundings.

It was shaped like one of the sealing techniques Gaara used during the war, only much, much bigger, with all of the triangular surfaces covered by unfamiliar, complicated patterns. It had a metallic shine to it, but not like an edge of a kunai or a hitai-ate, more like some sort of a soft metal the civilians liked to use to make jewelry and expensive knick-knacks.  
No wonder Orochimaru found it interesting. Something like this, humongous and alien, showing up seemingly randomly...

Naruto closed his eyes, while a seemingly dead root next to him twisted and started growing rapidly, slowly but surely taking a shape of a human.

"Status report," Captain Yamato said, his voice as calm as it always was. "The members of the unknown party are moving around, but not getting further than one kilometer away from the structure. They appear to be armed with  spears, through as of yet we cannot say much about the weapon. The oddly shaped tip suggest that there's more to it."

Naruto squinted.

The spears sure did look odd, at least for something that should be used to stab people; the  head was oddly thick and way too long to actually made any sense. It didn't look very balanced either, but there could be some sort of a trick  to deal with that issue - if someone was able to build something of the size of the structure without anyone noticing, then they were surely able to figure out a stick with a sharp tip.

"We decided against moving closer for  now," Yamato continued. "They hadn't noticed us as of yet and don't appear to have any devices designed to report to their superiors or call for backup, but the distance between every separate groups and the terrain would make apprehending anyone without raising any eyebrows difficult."

"I don't think that kidnapping one of them would help with anything," Naruto sighed. "I don't think Orochimaru has any reason to lie about the different language."

Yamato's dark eyes bore into him.

"Do you trust him?"

"Would it sound stupid if I tell you that I want to?" Naruto chuckled. It sounded hollow. "Or just desperate?"

Yamato fell silent and turned his gaze away. He wasn't observing the foreign structure though; his eyes were looking at things from the past long gone, his brow furrowed, mouth closed in a thin, pale line.

"It's Orochimaru!" he finally said, voice calm but rough, like there was something stuck down his throat. "It's what he doesn't tell you we should be wary about."

"I know," Naruto nodded. Even after agreeing to a truce with Konoha, Orochimaru still was not telling them as much as he could and damn if he wasn't good at finding reasonable excuses!

"This is your daughter," Tenzo continued. "And you know what he did."

It was hard to forget, especially when looking at Tenzo, the sole survivor of the experiment that was the reason why Orochimaru was chased out a long time ago - through the more Naruto looked at the situation it looked more like the Snake Sannin simply decided to leave and no one was able to stop him - of the village.

Still.

When Naruto was twelve and looked at an exiled Mist ninja, he saw a human with a heart not a beast that killed over a hundred children his age when it came to the bloody Mist ninja exams.  
When he was thirteen, he meet a boy who was confirming his own existence by murdering whoever happened to be in his path and saw simply a boy, one who later became a close friend and a protector.  
Those were only the two of many, many people, shinobi cracked and broken by the how the world was running back then.

Maybe it was naivety or maybe he was just plain stupid, but Naruto didn't want to call someone an irredeemable monster without giving them a chance to change their ways first.  
And Orochimaru... Orochimaru seemed to be doing... something of the sort. Testing waters, more than anything else and even a very thoughtful investigation - by Yamato, who was and will be forever suspicious - came out with nothing.

Then, one evening over a year ago, Orochimaru showed up in his office. Somehow he managed to get inside completely unnoticed.

"Hello, Lord Seventh," he said with a smile as Naruto jumped to his feet, completely startled by his sudden presence.

Sitting in the open window, framed by the light of sun still high up in the sky, Orochimaru was doing anything but being subtle. Even the clothes he picked for the occasion were flashy, with brightly colored flower pattern climbing up his sleeves and eye-catching obi, clearly not designed for a shinobi.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, forcing himself to relax. Orochimaru didn't looked like he was going to fight - besides, he was smart enough to know that in a fight one on one in the middle of Konoha he had no chances at all.

"I have a son," Orochimaru declared and that was definitely the weirdest way to open a conversation ever.

"Uhh... congratulations?" Naruto said, unsure what it had to do with Orochimaru breaking into the Hokage office.

"He wishes to join the Konoha Academy," Orochimaru continued, the soft expression on his face never changing, despite the bomb he just dropped.

Naruto spend a second or two just gaping and blinking rapidly, trying to wake up from this weird, weird dream. He didn't. After discretely pinching himself he confirmed it wasn't a genjutsu - it was all real.

"Why?" he asked.

Because dumping your kid in the lap of your enemy, former or not, seemed plain weird. "Why Konoha?"

Corners of Orochimaru's lips rose up.

"He's quite fond of it."

Naruto found the corner of his eye twitching. It was anything but an answer. If anything,now he had even more questions.

"He was never here, was he?"

"He was not," Orochimaru nodded. "However I might have talked about it now and then."

Naruto raised his eyebrows.

So, the Snake Sannin was sentimental, at least somewhat when it came to Konoha. Which was... weird. Weird, but not unwelcome. Sentiments were good, sentiments were workable, sentiments were the foundation of if not friendships then at least alliances.

"Still, why Konoha?" Naruto asked, leaning against his desk. One of the piles of paper shifted dangerously, but luckily stayed intact. "You could send him to a village you don't have a history of hostility with."

Naruto knew all too well how it felt to be surrounded by strangers that connected you with some terrible thing that happened in the past. It took him years to gain acceptance of his own village and even more effort - and blood and sweat and everything he could give - to make them think fondly about him. Naruto wouldn't wish it on any child, no matter who the parent was.

"Peace crumbles easily when one side finds that they have an upper hand," Orochimaru's smile widened into something more familiar.

"You think that they would use your son to get to you," Naruto furrowed your brow. "Or to try and use you."

Even during the times of peace, shinobi were still shinobi and someone would dig deep enough to learn just who the kid was connected to. To not using such connections, especially if there was much, much power behind them, would be plain stupid.

"You don't think that Konoha would use your son in the same way?"

"I would," Orochimaru tilted his head to the side. His fringe followed the motion and obscured Orochimaru's face in a way that let Naruto see both of his eyes. "However, Uchiha Sasuke walks as a free man, despite everything he's done."

"Sasuke is a friend."

"Who tried to kill you at least twice and that includes having his hand buried in your chest," Orochimaru pointed out in an overly sweetly voice, raising one finger after another because of course he would be counting. "Then, there's Uchiha Obito..."

Who almost doomed the world chasing a completely crazy goal and forming and even crazier plan that led to freeing an actual ancient God that was dead set on, well, dooming the world.  
Who also made a face-heel turn just when it was most needed and helped them save the world.

"In other words," Naruto said slowly, carefully. "You don't believe I would do the same."

Orochimaru just looked at him.

Well, damn. That was one hell of a show of trust and from a person Naruto never ever expected anything of the sort. with a child's live attached as a ribbon on top.

"You still haven't told me why do you want him to join the Konoha Academy."

"We're both aware that I'm..." Orochimaru stopped for a moment, looking for a right word. Then he made an almost unnoticeable shrug and pointed at his temple. "I'm missing certain things. For further development, I would prefer my son to have contact with other sources of influence."

That... was a certainly odd way to tell that he wanted his child to grow up to be a better person than he was, but it was Orochimaru for you.  
Naruto still was unable to grasp how exactly this man was charismatic enough to make people follow him almost religiously.

"It sounds like you care about him a lot," Naruto grinned. "Must be a nice kid."

"For this favor, I'm going to owe you a lot."

It sounded like a completely honest promise and probably that's why it rubbed Naruto in all the wrong ways at once.  
In a blink of an eye he was right by the window, almost nose to nose with Orochimaru, hands leaning against the frame on both sides.

Yellow eyes widened in surprise and there was a small twitch as Orochimaru backs arched away out of pure reflexes, getting himself stuck in a rather uncomfortable position.

“We're talking about a kid here,” Naruto stated harshly, looking straight into his eyes. “I'm not going to take advantage of a child.”

He had no idea what his ANBU we're doing, because the scent of perfumes was strong enough that Naruto almost could taste it in the air - bitter but fresh, lavender, rosemary and some things he couldn't put his finger on, a strong smell that was completely out of place in his office.

Just a little push was between Orochimaru and falling down the Hokage Tower - and in any different situation it would be a very tempting thing, to just put hands on his chest,push and watch the man dropping backwards like a rock - but until this very moment he didn't look vulnerable at all.

“I’m not going to judge a kid for whatever their parent did,” he repeated, still leaning over Orochimaru, still not letting him shift to a more comfortable position.

“But are you sure?” it would be easy, to just jump on the chance to get a hostage, especially if said hostage was handed on a silver platter. It would be one more thing that could make keeping Orochimaru in check easier, one more thing that was logical and reasonable and just plain horrible, so Naruto needed to know. “Are you absolutely sure? You know what it would mean for your son to become a Konoha shinobi.”

It was tricky enough when Temari and Shikamaru decided to send their son to the Konoha Academy. Heck, it was a mess when they decided to get married in the first place. However Temari was from Suna, and Sunagakure and Konoha were close allies for years and Orochimaru was anything but.

Orochimaru’s expression melted into something much softer than anything Naruto ever saw on his face.

“I’m not going to start a war against my child,” he stated.

“Are you really letting him make a decision like that?”

“Aren’t children supposed to be the future?” Orochimaru asked back, mouth twisting in a smile that was still too wide to look natural. “I might as well let him start making his own choices now. So, do we have an agreement?”

Naruto sort of wanted to punch him for being so pushy and the vision of the snake sannin falling to the ground was very tempting.  
On the other hand he really didn’t seem like he was lying and by agreeing Naruto would have a chance to protect the kid if someone decide to use him in any way.

“You do know there are parents-teacher meeting, right?” Naruto asked with a snicker, completely ignoring the painful groan coming from the deeps behind his eyes.

Now the same groan pushed him back to the reality, along with a new memories as one of the clones he left in the office popped itself to deliver an update.

“Lets figure out where they are,” he decided.

According to Mitsuki, Orochimaru couldn’t help with that, because he was absolutely no clue - the aliens were using some sort of a device that acted almost like a flying god technique fixed between one place and another and the movement seemed to not be restricted by any physical obstacles at all, making it impossible to figure it out without a window and it was exactly what the odd building was missing.

Moment later, the closest Hyuuga was right by his side, grey hair framing the enlarged veins surrounding the activated Byakugan with elegance that shouldn’t be possible. Especially with a dark, dirt covered apron over protecting his white robes from getting destroyed while he occupied himself with his new hobby.   
He joined the mission immediately after receiving the summon, leaving the gardening equipment without an ounce of care on the ground.

Sometimes Naruto still had trouble with connecting the man next to him - the one he was allowed to call father if he wished to do so - with the asshole he remembered from his childhood. He suspected Hiashi used up all of his asshole powers on the Hyuuga clan; after the war ended Hiashi put all his energy to ending the divide in the Hyuuga clan and he did it with gusto. Some of the Hyuuga still looked at him with terror and Naruto wished he could’ve seen the whole thing instead of bits and pieces here and there.

“Infiltrating the building itself shouldn’t be a problem,” Hiashi said after a short moment, but there was a grim frown on his face, so Naruto waited for the man to continue. “However moving inside of it is going to be problematic.”

“How so?” Yamato asked.

“It is structured somewhat like the fortresses from the samurai era,” Hiashi explained. “Sudden twists and turns created purposely to obscure view, set in a way to create a labyrinth. However, this is not the difficult part.”

“Then what is it?”

“Many of the levels are not connected with each other at all,” he continued. “No stairs, no ramps, no secret shortcuts leading to the other levels; they might as well exists as separate buildings.”

“Let me guess,” Naruto grimaced. “Orochimaru and my daughter are imprisoned on one of those separate layers.”

Hiashi nodded. “There is a group of four in the same room.”

Naruto breathed out. It looked like Orochimaru was not lying.

“They appear to be civilians, though one of them is more like the troops outside,” Hiashi continued. “I would need another fifty meteres or so to confirm.”

“Troops outside?” Yamato questioned. “What about them?”

“Their anatomy around the abdominal area is altered to accommodate a singular parasite,” Hiashi replied. “I do not know much about these and I doubt we have the time to consult someone from the Aburame clan.”

“Look for something like a seal and follow the movements of the troops,” Naruto ordered.

Something was happening; the soldiers moved back to the structure at a pace slightly faster than when they were patrolling around and immediately created an even row about the middle of it.  
Then seven of them moved forward and stopped in one point, positioning themselves in three rows, so close to each other they were rubbing each other with the elbows.

“What the-?!” Hiashi gasped and Naruto fully agreed with the sentiment.

A set of several stone rings descended from the building, dropping on the ground around the soldiers; if they stood even a foot more away from each other, some of them would be squished under the heavy stone.

In a matter of seconds, the soldiers were not even visible from behind the stones. And then the circles rose back up into the air, s if picked up by an invisible force, returning to the place they moved from, while the seven men were nowhere to be seen.

“I gather you can’t tell us how that happened,” Yamato stated, glancing at Hiashi.

“I’m sorry,” he said, rubbing at his eyes. “It was… I don’t know what I’ve seen, but they are now on the upper middle level on the structure. Himawari and the Sannin are a level below them, one that is not connected to any other and also the one that is the most spacious one.”

“Not the lowest?” Yamato furrowed his eyebrows.

Hiashi wanted to reply, but then his attention was caught by yet another group of soldiers being teleported by the stone rings. Whoever those people were, they were moving like a well-oiled mechanism.

“We need to go,” Naruto decided as a second to last group of the soldiers moved towards where the rings were landing. “I have a bad feeling about it.”

Despite trying and risking moving closer under a heavy wrap of genjutsu, they couldn’t figure out just how it all was working, but the fact that all of the soldiers retreated at once definitely meant that something was going to happen, something bad.  
  
Then a low, thunderous rumble filled the air. The ground shook and the deep, completely unfamiliar roar appeared to be making the air itself shape in waves around the structure, almost like waves or flashes of heat.

"What is going on?!" Naruto shouted, hoping that his voice would get over the noise.

"I don't know!" Hiashi screamed back. "I'm looking at a some sort of a structure... a machine, I believe, many times bigger than I've even seen!"

"What does it do?"

"Gathering energy, however what for I cannot tell!" Hiashi shook his head and winced. "Some parts are so bright it's like staring right into the center of a Raiton jutsu, I can't even make out the details!"

Before Naruto managed to open his mouth to ask another question, a sudden wave of hot air smashed into them with enough force to push the breath out of his lungs.  
He felt his whole body protesting, skin crawling with thousands of pain needles as the pain brought by the temperature spread all over his body.  
The wave of hot air was followed by the  dust, swallowing the ground and spreading like heavy mist all around the structure. Then it rose up, all of it, slowly but surely climbed over the dust clouds and then ever further up, in the air, with nothing visible holding its weight.

"I can't see anything that looks like jutsu!" Hiashi shouted. His skin was angry red from the hot air, grey hair astray and in his face. "Only that there's even more energy at the lower  part of it! Something is also forming around it, looks like a barrier!"

Naruto cursed.

"We need to go now!"

They didn't know what the structure was and what the barrier was going to do when struck, but the sudden sense of urgency was overwhelming.  
Naruto felt that if he didn't do something, right here and now, then all will be lost.

The others followed right after him, the air now humming both with the noise and with the chakra.

The structure launched itself into the skies, literally, with impact big enough to create a shock wave that pushed all of them backwards as if they were just specters of dust.

"No!" Naruto screamed, pushing himself back up, high, high up against the insane wind, chasing the place where his daughter was.

It moved so fast that it was now barely visible at all.  
Naruto pushed himself further, calling all the power he could muster, his veins and nerves filled with the energy of the bijuu, chakra swarming his coils to the point everything felt like it was going to blow up.

 

The skies above him were empty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was considering dumping a huge interlude after a real game-changing cliffhangers but I've decided against being an asshole.  
> (Also because I want to keep this story floating and the last update was ages ago and I had this bit mostly done)
> 
> I also greatly enjoy writing Orochimaru and Naruto interacting, not to mention, dumping little hints and world building stuff all over the place.


	10. Shinobi

Chapter 9: Shinobi

 

"What I need," he General finished. "is your honest opinion."

"Can I keep her?" Lorne blurted out the very next moment.

Jack raised his eyebrows, eyeing the man. This wasn't a reaction he was expecting during debriefing, at least not when it was about a mission that went Fubar.

"Would you care to elaborate, Major?" General Hammond seemed to share his opinion, considering how he narrowed his eyes, as if squinting would help him to see the reason behind such a reaction.

"Ah, of course!" Lorne straightened up, flushing slightly. "What I've meant to say is that she's reliable. Working well in difficult situation, able to work well with a team of people she just meet... she's just good."

"I agree with that," Jack nodded. "She's well trained and we do want to get chummy with her people once Carter figures out how to get the data from the Goa'Uld hard drive."

"What worries me, what that panic attack she had after returning home," General Hammond said. "I don't want to put anyone at risk and this might happen if something like that happened on the mission."

"To be fair, she flipped only after we’ve returned home," Lorne pointed out. "Back there, we all saw lots of spiders and stuff crawling everywhere and she was just peachy the whole time."  

Jack stretched, running fingers through his hair at the same time, mulling over the issue.

If there was a problem, they definitely needed to know how advanced it was and what could possibly trigger it, to estimate if Orochimaru should even be out there.  
That also meant they needed to drag their trusted psychologist down to the Colorado Springs again.

At this point the guy was wrapped in the red tape like a Christmas gift, with the government breathing down his neck and was probably developing his own anxiety issues because of that.  
All of the personnel had an obligatory chat with the guy every few months and Jack was no exceptions like. He tried to be, he really did, because spilling his heartache on some random guy lap just didn't seem right, but orders were orders.  
The shrink wasn't a bad guy, far from it. While he was trying to stay neutral, sometimes his moral backbone just peeked through the professional mask and that was probably what make Jack stop fighting nail and teeth against the whole thing.

What would be his reaction if faced with Orochimaru?, Jack  mused.

The guy definitely wasn't a fan of the idea of sending a former child-soldier anywhere where there was even a slight chance of a battle-like situation. Jack agreed wholeheartedly, because that was something unimaginable.

On the other hand... Orochimaru was Orochimaru.  
Ridiculously calm and capable, picking up fight for the pure fun of it and treating being stranded on an alien planet as a minor inconvenience... which could be the exact reason why the shrink would so wary despite Orochimaru being the image of well adjusted human being up until the tiny little bugger decided to catch a ride in Orochimaru's hair.

"Well, I don't think telling her to sit on her ass and wait for us to solve all the problems is a smart decision" Jack said, trying to imagine the reaction to a statement like that.

Orochimaru would probably do the same thing his team did when the government tried to close the program that one time - she was definitely that sort of a person that would manage to somehow take over the Gate Room for long enough to activate the Stargate and move out to do her own thing.

"What do you propose?”

“You make it sounds like I actually have an idea, general.”

“Colonel.”

Jack sighed deeply.

“I figure there wouldn't be too much risk in taking her for a trip once or twice when we're visiting friends?” He said with a shrug. “And check if there are any bugs around?”

That was definitely not in the regulations. That was probably very far away from the regulations, but then again, those were not written with aliens in mind.

 

xxx

 

Master Bra'tac popped out of the Stargate once again, merely two days after Lorne and his team returned from the mishap that was their mission.  
This time, the old Jaffa looked much less grim and there was some spring in his steps. Which was… odd. Jack definitely wasn't expecting to see the stern, old man being all perky and radiating like he just aced a test. It didn't seem natural.

"My friends! Rejoice, for I am bringing you good news!"

"Damn, I hope he doesn't want to talk about Jesus..." Jack muttered.

And then he gasped for breath, because Carter reflectively elbowed him under the ribs.  
She didn't even needed to look back, she just shoved it right where it hurt the most, all while she kept a brilliant smile on her face.

"Have you found a trace of the new System Lord, Master Bra'tac?" General Hammond asked, leading the other man up the stairs to the conference room.

"At this point I cannot say much," Bra'tac said. "However we are slowly figuring out which part of the galaxy he tries to make his."

"We would gladly hear you out," General Hammond sighed. "Any bit of information might be crucial."

"So, if not the unknown trouble, then what's the reason for this visit?" Jack asked. There always was a reason, no matter who they were dealing with.

"The Jaffa finally united and dared to not only raised a hand against the false gods, but bring back the news of a victory!"

"Please," General Hammond calmly sat down in his usual chair, put his hands together and looked straight at the Jaffa. "Do elaborate."

And so, they've listened to a story of a First Prime of a lesser System Lord that became inspired by Teal'c, Bra'tac and the rebellion. The man decided to take a chance and managed to subdue and kill the Goa'Uld and then somehow managed to talk most of the Jaffa into following him rather than trying to get his head stuck on a pike.

It was just a start; the insane charisma of the Jaffa called K’Tano brought more and more traitors and deserters together, uniting them into a small, but surprisingly effective army.  
They infiltrated and attacked small outposts, they stole weapons and supplies and they constantly grew in strength.

"This is indeed very impressive," General Hammond nodded. "And we are happy that it is working."

"The question is," Jack decided to shamelessly butt in. "What are you planning? Joining them?"

'It is a tempting thought," Bra'tac sighed with longing clearly visible in his eyes. "We are warriors, hiding in the shadows, running away... it fills our souls with great distaste."

Jack felt a muscle on his jaw twitching, so he forced his mouth to spread in a smile.  
Their alien allies, both the rebel Jaffa and the Tok’Ra loved to berate the SGC for being too visible, too aggressive, too chaotic and here he was, one of the key players, all ready and set to join the fight.

"What happened to being careful and in small groups to avoid what happened to the Tok'Ra?" Jack asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.

"Jack O'Neill, you cannot fully understand how it feels," Bra'tac glared at him. "Therefore it would be welcome for you to not judge."

Oh, he did understand, especially in this very moment.

"Master Bra'tac, what are you expecting of us?" General Hammond decided it was the right time to get back to the topic.

"Anything, truly," the old Jaffa nodded his head. "You Tau'Ri are always eager to invite us into the fight with the Goa'Uld, to help you. Now we are the ones who need help."

“Are you expecting us to send our people to fight with you?” General Hammond inquired. “Or are you asking for resources?”

“I am ashamed to ask, but we need anything you can give us to strengthen our cause,” Master Bra’tac sighed. “We do not have many allies among the stars. The very symbol we wear on our foreheads brings only terror to minds of of many. We are hunted and lacking resources and weapons.”

So, he was here for the gadgets and food and not for asking the SGC to fight among the Jaffa, Jack hummed to himself. Which was way more doable than going to war in space. Still, the old guy made it sound like they could use a friend and someone to deal with their bad PR.

They talked for awhile, trying to find the best way to deal with the obvious logistic problems - like how the so called Deep Space Telemetry Program suddenly needed a ridiculous amount of guns and ammunition.

The human resources were a much more difficult task - they couldn't just go out there and recruit people off the streets. The entire program was wrapped in so much red tape it looked like a christmas gift and nothing was going to get any less classified any time soon.

Finally, it was decided that SG-1 was going to deliver a symbolic gift of food rations and some weapons with a promise of bringing more later and using the chance to look around. And figure out just how screwed the Jaffa were, though nobody told it out loud while Bra'tac was still in the room.

There was also one more addiction to the mission.

"I want to show her how our culture flourish despite all the hardships," Master Bra'tac declared. "To show how well we train our troops, how we prosper despite all."

Apparently, Orochimaru managed to get under his skin to the point Master Bra'tac couldn't help himself but needed to prove something to her. Whatever that something was.

"That's just a social visit," Jack said, after a moment of exchanging glances, because the silence was getting awkward. "It should be okay."

General Hammond sighed heavily. "Just keep an eye on things, Colonel."

It took a few days to organize everything. The crate filled with MREs was filled to the brim and waiting a second one filled with weapons was right next to it. The paperwork was done and waiting for only for the green light from their little scouting escapade.

Jack was bouncing on the balls of his feet, observing people hurrying around him, finishing their tasks, just as the Stargate was ready to activate.  
Daniel was once again checking if he had enough spare batteries - he planned to interview as many Jaffa as it was humanly possible, treating the trip like the best chance to learn about culture.  
Carter was mildly annoyed, but most professional of them all. Jack wouldn't be surprised if she we as mistook for the commanding officer. It's not like it didn't happen before and Jack usually rolled with it. Seeing someone else suffer was always fun.

Orochimaru looked like she was deeply satisfied with how things were going and eager to get out there again, despite how the previous trip ended for her. She also either decided to ignore the regulations or nobody figured out it would be a great idea to explain things to her, because her hair was in a very loose ponytail, hairpins completely forgotten.

Jack made a mental note to explain this and that in the spare time. Pissing people off by not looking right was something that happened to his team way too many times, so if he could help someone in similar position before things turn the unpleasant route...

"I'm sure this is going to be absolutely fascinating," Orochimaru chirped happily, her smile all too wide.

Master Bra'tac grimaced.

"Must you spit out acid even now?"

Orochimaru shamelessly kept on grinning.

Bra'tac looked like he was having some serious thoughts about the invitation, but there was no time to change his mind now. The alarms blew and the Stargate started to move.  


xxx

 

The Jaffa group that came to meet them was indeed put together with warriors from many factions, just as Bra'tac said. The tattoo's on their foreheads were a proof enough, each one different, symbolizing belonging to a different god.  
With so many people having different backgrounds - and being taught for ages some dumb things, because Goa'Uld loved to pass nonsensical laws just to pass the time - Jack expected some bullshit to crawl through the crack at some point.

Still, he was slightly taken aback, when K'tano first laughed off their gift of P-90 declaring it to be not a real weapon and then made a comment about Carter in a certain flavor of sexist asshat when she stepped up to demonstrate how real was their gun on some big chunk of a log on a string.

Major Carter didn't even bat an eye.  
She merely smiled sweetly and let the Jaffa sharpshooters demonstrate their prowess with the staff weapons and leave impressive blast marks in the wooden surface of the wood.  
Then she stepped forward, still smiling and pretty, and scary as shit and proceed to chop the log in half with a spray of bullets.

It looked impressive as hell, when the torn half of the log dropped on the ground with a loud thud, surrounded by a thick cloud of dust and splinters.  
The Jaffa finally got the hint and stared at Carter in silent terror, as she turned on her heel, smile much wider and looked at Jack with anticipation.  
Oh, he understood what she was waiting for alright.

"Major, I was expecting you to demonstrate a single fire," he scolded her, then looked around for a way to up the stakes some more.

"Hey, you! In the skirt!" he picked a Jaffa at random. "Yes you! Can you swing that target a little? Cool! Some more? Yeah, now get out of there!"

Carter once again raised the P-90 and aimed a tiny bit higher than previously.  
The thick rope securing the log in the mid-air gave up with a loud snap as the bullet bit through it. The second half of the torn apart log dropped on the ground, adding even more dust to the still airborn cloud of wooden chunks.

Carter turned round on her heel again, grinning like Christmas came early.

Next to him, Orochimaru hummed, through Jack wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean.

K'Tano and his Jaffa had no other choice that to accept that they were mistaken - as if they didn't learn how vicious Earth weaponry was on their own skins before they defected - and the group could finally move on to taking a short trip through the camp.

"That was an interesting way of proving someone wrong," Orochimaru noted quietly.

"What," Jack eyed her. "You wanted to take a swing too? I should've told me!"

"I'll pass," she said. "I'm just confused about what they are paying attention to."

"So in your world people don't pay attention to differences between genders?" Daniel butted in, fascinated by the new discovery.

Orochimaru blinked at him slowly, as if the question took her some time to even process.

"What for?" she finally asked. "There is not all that much of a difference in the first place."

"Some people believe that women are weaker," Carter commented.

"I would have noticed becoming weaker," Orochimaru stated matter of factly, like she was talking about the weather.

"Oh," Jack said, blinking as he wondered what he was supposed to do with that sort of an information. "Oh. Okay then. I'll take your word for it."

He wondered if he should deliver the new information, at least to doctor Fraiser - there surely were some health issues with stuff like that - or if he should just leave it be as it was. On the other hand Orochimaru didn't seem to be nervous about anything at all, so maybe it was okay just how it was?

Luckily, the distraction came in a form of a training ground - a flat, sand-covered empty space, where the Jaffa were currently practicing hand to hand combat.  
It sure looked impressive. There were heavy punches followed by body-twisting kicks and backflips that seemed to be very brutal and definitely even more demanding.

K'Tano sounded like he was very proud of mastering this martial art and Jack had to admit, it definitely demanded great skill to master. He wouldn't even know where to start.  
A quick glance at Orochimaru told him that she didn't share his opinion.

"It could hold some weight in a duel," she noted quietly. "But it's not fit for a battlefield at all."

Jack nodded, considering it.  
It sure looked dangerous, but it was definitely very demanding, which reduced the time of being able to fight at your best quite rapidly. There were certain differences between performing the moves and actually using them in a fight, but after seeing Orochimaru fight, he decided to trust her opinion on that topic.

There were different things to learn about right now anyway, things that rubbed him just the wrong way.

"So, you're making all the decisions here?" he addressed K'Tano, hoping he sounded unpleasant enough to provoke him to... do something. He wasn't sure what, he just wanted to see his real face and that usually shoved up when people were pissed off enough to drop all the masks and go straight for the punch.

"I am," K'Tano nodded with a wild smile. "But anyone who wishes to can challenge me for a duel at any moment."

"And the winner takes the control?"

"It is a duel," K'Tano nodded. "I do not know how you Tau'Ri are doing this, but we fight to the death."

"We have that fun thing called democracy," Jack muttered under his nose and then eyed Orochimaru.

Who looked way too excited about something for his liking. There was already a wide, toothy grin on her face and the yellow eyes were shining with mischief.  
And he even could tell what exactly made her so happy.

"Orochimaru," Jack hissed through his teeth. "No!"

She looked at his with deeply wounded expression.

"Why not?" she asked.

"What would you even do with an army?"

"I might have a few ideas," she replied instantly and sweetly.

"No."

He definitely needed to keep an eye on her and now not only because of the bug issue, because of course things never were that easy.

 

xxx 

 

The evening slowly swallowed the Jaffa camp and along with it came a lonely moment - the Jaffa were occupied with whatever they were supposed to do at this hour. His team spilled around the camp, doing things - Daniel followed one group or another like a puppy and made notes, Carter was occupied explaining guns to the group that seemed to be genuinely interested in what she had to say and Teal’c was still with Bra’tac and K’tano.

It gave Jack a chance to breathe freely and unwind a bit before he would have to smile nicely and bit his tongue again.

He could also check what his favorite ninja had to say, without having it turned into a discussion.

Orochimaru didn’t appear to have any issue with either the bugs or the aliens and seemed to be satisfied with just observing what was going around her instead of taking over the camp, which was a very nice gesture. Jack sure was glad to avoid that mess.

"So..." Jack started, eyeing Orochimaru, who once again seemed to be fascinated with the unfamiliar set of stars on the sky. "Thoughts about this K'tano guy?"

She hummed, thinking about it for a moment before giving him an answer.

The guy Bra’tac was so hyped about was definitely something. Jack wasn't sure what, though.  
He looked young, but age among Jaffa was a tricky thing - they looked young for decades, way longer than any human could even hope to live. Along with the young, muscular body K'Tano also had a smile straight out of the toothpaste commercials, brilliant mad charismatic, and used way too often for Jack to feel comfortable around the guy.  
Something just didn't sit right with Jack and he couldn't put his finger on it. Was it that radiant smile? Or the fact that the Jaffa acted like there was a rainbow coming out of his ass?

"He certainly can inspire the Will of Fire in people," Orochimaru finally stated. The tone of her voice said much more than the words alone. Her brow slightly furrowed and the soft smile blanked out, leaving the line of her mouth flat and expressionless.

"Meaning?" Jack raised an eyebrows at the odd name. It was vaguely familiar, since he made sure to know everything Daniel managed to translate from the Bingo Book.

Still, knowing the idiom from the paper and hearing it used in an actual conversation...

"He's full of shit, but knows how to sell it," Orochimaru deadpanned.

Jack snorted, because the choice of words definitely wasn't what he was expected. Usually she was much more elegant when offending someone.

There was also a bite to her words, an acidic sort of hatred, that had to evolve for years to reach this level of bitterness.  
Definitely was a story behind it, Jack decided. A long and probably a nasty one, but now wasn't the time for digging through her past. Not that he expected Orochimaru to disclose much about the topic that clearly irked her.

"Glad I'm not alone," Jack set to patting her over the shoulder which earned him a long stare.

He ignored it. Instead he showed hands into his pockets and looked at all the people hurrying around. There were a lot of them, dozens more than they usually saw and they were all walking in the open, heads held high. It should be a good thing.

"Are you worried?" Orochimaru quietly moved and now was standing right next to him, so close it felt like his personal space was invaded.

"It just all smell funny to me," Jack admitted. "I can't put my finger on it, but... I mean, look at them! The dude tell them to bark and they would do their best to impersonate a pack of good pups! Wiggling their asses like good boys and all!"

The amount of worship K'Tano received from his fellow Jaffa was downright creepy and it felt like they walked right in the middle of a settlement belonging to some religious sect not a rebel camp. The moment the guy showed up they stopped whatever they we're doing and gathered just to applause and that just wasn't how people should act, alien or not.

"Let's watch for now, hmm?" Orochimaru tilted her head to the side.

Loose strands of her long hair we're now brushing against Jack's shoulder and damn if it wasn't too close. He was seriously considering giving up on this duel of will powers and admit his defeat by stepping away.

"What, because judging people right at the beginning is wrong?"

"No," Orochimaru smirked. "Because it might be interesting."

"I sure hope this is another dictionary mishap because you sound plain disturbing."

Orochimaru merely chuckled.  


xxx

 

The late dinner went without a fuss; while the Jaffa were wary towards any weapon that wasn't familiar, they were completely fine with eating exotic, new things like MRE.  
They even appeared to be fascinated with the whole new world of things that tasted vaguely like a chicken.

At least Orochimaru had a decency of being an alien and having taste buds.  
She was slowly picking at her portion, much more interested in observing the Jaffa than actually eating. her face wasn't betraying anything; a soft, false smile was serving as a perfect mask, not disappearing even when some of the men openly stared at her, whispering among themselves.

Jack stabbed a chunk of meat with his plastic fork and contemplated it, before pushing the plate away and leaning back to observe people around from a more comfortable position.  
It was surprisingly easy to forget just how odd Orochimaru looked like. He sure got used to her, but for the Jaffa all of them appeared weird - they were the foreigners, wearing alien attire, probably acting in all sorts of weird way. And even among them, Orochimaru sticked out like a sore thumb, chalk-white, yellow-eyed and eerie.

Not that she was bothered by it; each wary glance was meet with her own challenging stare, probably for the pure hell of it.

Daniel, as always, was right in the middle of the Jaffa, asking questions, inquiring or explaining something, all of it accompanied by lively gestures and all sorts of face expressions.   
Well, as long as the Jaffa felt like sharing it was alright, Jack decided.

Teal'c on the other hand was... off. Out there too, but not socialising. Listening, following, eyes not leaving K'Tano for a slightest moment, with every passing minute nodding some more to the words like "sacrifice" and "honor".

Jack found himself torn between wanting to let Teal'c have whatever he wanted and warning him off about all the dumb ideas thrown around.

"Why is he even buying that?" he muttered to himself, quietly enough to not be heard. Or so he thought.

"He's a Jaffa," Orochimaru replied, lazily leaning closer to him, kind of too close - she was very bad at telling where personal space was supposed to be - and her challenging glare was giving all the people around the entirely wrong idea to leave them be.

"Casual racism much?" Jack shifted into a more comfortable position, not sure if he wanted to play along or not.

"He was living away from home for so long," Orochimaru mused, brushing loose strands of her hair aside. "It's only natural that he would all but thrown himself at anything that feels vaguely familiar."

"What are you thinking?"

Orochimaru glanced at him from under her eyelashes.

"About your friend swallowing all of that, or about the issues themselves?"

"The latter," Jack decided.

"There's not much to talk about," she said. "Once you live long enough, you become rather... disillusioned about the whole thing."

"You do know the Jaffa are like... at the very least in their sixties, right?"

"And they've had their freedom for how many?" Orochimaru chuckled.

"Are you telling me that it's okay?"

"Oh, this is going to end up messily," Orochimaru wrinkled her nose. "But if they want to be free, they need to learn."

"They are going to die!" Jack hissed. "This is not what I would call learning!"

"The more you protests and argue, the more less likely they would listen to you," Orochimaru advised.

Jack nodded.  
Gritting his teeth for the moment and waiting it out seemed like the smartest decision currently available to him. sooner or later someone would do he math and notice an obvious pattern, at some point someone would ask for an advice.

The next day wasn’t any better, If anything, it took the worst possible turn as K'tano handpicked some of the Jaffa and send them for their death, while all of the others acted like it was some sort of a great privilege.  
Jack wanted to tear his hair out and scream.

Well, he maybe did scream a bit, but nobody seemed to be able to see the reason.

“They have chosen to help our cause with their deaths,” Teal’c looked at him sternly. “Nobody pushed them to do anything.”

“They have marched to their death! With bombs attached!” Jack protested.

“What do you think I have chosen when I decided to help you?” Teal’c asked.

“To live!” Jack barked back and marched away, before he said something else, something that would hurt his friend.

He kicked at the dirt.

This new Rebel group looked too good to be true so of course there was something nasty hidden beneath the surface and here it was. Such a nice person, sending his own people to die in exchange for a few weapons and being a mild annoyance to one System Lord or another.

“Colonel, we can’t just walk away,” Carter followed him.

“Yes, we can,” Jack stated. “We came here looking for an alliance, but who is going to guarantee that our people are going to be safe and not send somewhere to serve as a distraction?”

“One would call it a reasonable strategy,” Orochimaru was suddenly there too, on his opposite side. He even could hear Daniel from afar, trying to keep people occupied and not offended.

“Well, I don’t give a damn about being reasonable!” Jack hissed. “We don’t leave people behind and definitely are not using them as the walking targets just because we want to get our hands on the shiny!”

“He is wasting resources,” Orochimaru nodded. “However martyrs are good for building a certain image…”

"You know what?" Jack muttered. "If you still want to wipe the floor with this ass, be my guest, I don't care anymore."

"Colonel, how are you going to explain it?"

"I don't know, we will tell the general that he was going on an on with all that sexist bullshit?" Jack shrugged. "It's not like we would be lying..."

“Colonel.”

“Okay, don’t wipe the floor with his ass unless something drastic is going to happen.”

Carter looked unimpressed.

 

xxx

 

The universe wouldn’t be the universe if something drastic didn’t happen.

They were away for maybe a fifteen minutes, but it was enough time for K’Tano to talk Teal’c into walking through the Stargate with a very important mission. One of the sort you don’t come back from.

“You had no right to do this!" he growled. "Not without going through me, dammit! He's a member of my team and I'm the one responsible for his well being!"

“Is this a challenge?” K’Tano demanded. He was still wearing that dumb grin of his, full of teeth and brilliant and was openly looking for a way to antagonize them even further. For what reasons, he had no idea.

Jack was very tempted to confirm that yes, he was eager to kick his ass getting a severe stain of his files for acting like a dumbass be damned.  
Only he knew that fighting a well trained Jaffa would end up badly for him and probably prove the asshole right.

Orochimaru glanced at him from under her eyelashes and, smiling sweetly, stepped forward.

“I don’t know,” she almost cooed at the Jaffa and poked at his chest with her finger.

She looked small compared to him, over a head shorter than the Jaffa. The borrowed military Jacket was simply set over her shoulders instead of being worn properly was making her seem even more lithe. The dark lines of tattoo on her forearm looked more like bracelets than ink.

K’Tano grimaced and raised his hand, clearly intending to bat her arm away.  
Only he couldn’t. His palm stopped on the surface of her skin and despite him trying his hardest - the muscles were visibly straining - he couldn’t gain even an inch.

“Would you like it to be a challenge?” she asked, still smiling sweetly. “I sure wouldn’t mind a little bit of an exercise.”

She sure did know how to offend people without resorting to calling nmes, Jack noted.

Bra’tac loudly sucked in the air. And he wasn’t the only one. In just few, short words Orochimaru managed to get all of the Jaffa to hate her.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Jack hissed at her.

“I’m bored,” she shrugged. “He would do.”

She sounded almost like a Goa’Uld would do, yet another provocation added to the pile she already managed to create.

“If you’re so eager to die, follow me,” K’tano finally made a decision and turned around. The Jaffa stepped aside, creating a narrow path as he walked forward, leading them to the training ring.

Orochimaru cheerfully followed, completely ignoring the hostile stares, leaving Jack no choice to just join the impropu parade and hope for… he had no clue what he wanted anymore.   
He wanted to have Teal’c back, and to punch some sense into those idiots around him, he wanted to have a beer and an aspirin or four.

“You don’t even have a weapon,” K’tano said, with a false smile, when they stood in front of each other, surrounded by the ring of spectators. “But if you desire your death so much, I will lend you a weapon to go with whatever honor you might have.”

With a gesture he summoned one of the Jaffa. The man almost joged to Orochimaru, eager to please his leader.

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow and weighted the staff weapon in one hand.  
Then she smiled. It wasn’t the usual, sweet if a bit too wide expression. The grin should be physically impossible, so wide it almost broke her face in half.

“I am a shinobi,” she purred, still grinning and licked her lips - tongue unnaturally long, the face expression unnatural, terrifying and wrong - “I have no need for silly things like honor. And as for weapons…”

She grabbed the staff weapon with her other hand, raised it up horizontally up to her chest. Yellow eyes slowly moved, making sure that all the attention was on her.

“Don’t need that either,” she declared.

Suddenly, she brought it down on her knee. With a thunderous crack, the  thick, metal staff broke like a twig.

“I am a weapon,” she said, voice strong in the absolute silence surrounding her and tossed the broken pieces on the ground.

The small miserable thud was like a signal that reminded the audience that they had to breathe. The air was filled with gasps and whispers, heavy with barely contained fear.

Jack had to admit, K’tano had balls, because he did not step back just like the rest of them did. He stood his ground, face much more serious than before, body tense because now he knew he was going to face something dangerous instead of having an easy mock fight.

He carefully moved forward, circling Orochimaru, waiting for her to make the first move.  
She wasn’t in hurry. Slowly, step by step, she walked towards K’Tano, the inhuman smile still on her face, making it looking more like a creepy mask than a human expression.

What was she doing? Jack wondered. Testing the Jaffa? Pushing him, making him step away, move, run in fear?

The strategy was sure as hell working on him, because this, this looked nothing like her little duel with Bra’tac back in the SGC, even without any punches exchanged. There, it looked like an even fight, here…  
K’Tano rushed forward, staff moving in a blink of an eye in a powerful smash. Orochimaru stepped aside right before the metal surface connected with her skin.

The Jaffa shifted his weight and twisted, bringing the weapon back in a wide arch, only to hit air again.

Orochimaru was literally walking in circles around her opponent, making avoiding powerful strikes and lightning-fast attack looks like a childsplay, like something that didn’t require any effort on her part.

K’Tano was relentless, more and more angry with every passing second, seemingly not getting tired at all.

Orochimaru whirled around him, one knee bend low to the ground, her other leg tripping K’Tano with a swift kick, right at her awaiting fist. She punched him in the stomach.

Jack winced, remembering all too well what exactly was there when it came to Jaffa. He knew that it was the weak spot, one that probably hurt like a bitch and a half - that’s why they were  fixated on wearing body armor, besides looking scary and fancy in all that metal. And with the strength she just demonstrated...

Jack expected the man to bend in half, to scream, to react in some way, but the guy seemed to have a ridiculously high pain resistance.

"My, this is unexpected..." Orochimaru murmured, licking her lips again, somehow able to talk perfectly fine with her tongue out.

K’Tano bared his teeth and made a single step backwards before he managed to straighten up.

“I must agree,” he said, voice hoarse. “It seems the Tau’ri train their women well.”

They started circling each other once again, now with K'tano being much more vary of his opponent.

He feigned an attack just to steep aside in the last second testing Orochimaru's reflexes.  
She didn't even twitch, no matter how close he got.

It looked like K'Tano had to attack or he would end up looking stupid in front of all of his people, but a commotion somewhere in the back rows managed to catch his attention.

His and many more, because the words shouted out demanded it.

"Betrayal!"

"Is this... Teal'c?" it sounded like Bra'tac, but Jack didn't care much for the old man.

He felt so relieved he was dizzy, because the loud shouting, the message seemingly so terrible meant that his friend was back from his suicide mission. Back, alive and pissed.

The Jaffa stepped aside, clearing a path for Teal'c, but for Jack it wasn't fast enough. He pushed through the crowd, not ashamed of using his elbows and stepping on feet, wiggling and squeezing up until he was in front of the familiar face.

Teal'c looked like hell. His eyes were wild and wide, there was a nasty, purple bruise blossoming on the side on his face all the way from the jaw to his temple. His lower lip was cut and bleeding, painting teeth red as he screamed.

"Teal'c!" Jack gasped, grabbing him by the shoulders. He was risking getting a black eye but he had to make sure this was real, that he was really here. "What's going on? You looks like- what the hell had happened?!"

"We've been betrayed! I need to warn everyone-" he stopped finally noticing the duel.

"What is she doing?" he asked.

"Dealing with her anger issues in a healthy way," Jack replied immediately. "More importantly what you are talking about? Who betrayed us?"

"It was a trap," he explained quickly, raising his voice enough for everyone to hear. "An ambush was waiting for us and then Lord Yu found great joy in explaining how we were betrayed! And he" he pointed at K’Tano. “ Is who sold us to the Goa'Uld!"

Instantly, there were voices protesting, refusal to believe, but they were accompanied by the anguished, nervous chatter of those who were not too sure.

"Lies!" K’Tano barked.

"Oh, this is not surprising me at all," Orochimaru chuckled. "And this is not the end of surprised either."

"How low you must fall to use deception!” K’Tano growled. “Just because you do not understand our ways!”

The Jaffa hummed in agreement, the mood suddenly changing from disbelief to something more akin to hostility. Jack swallowed, looking around, trying to keep calm and to not put his hands anywhere close to his gun, just to not make the situation even worse.

“People, calm down, I’m sure there’s an explanation-”

“You just want to force your ways onto us, just like the False God did!” K’Tano immediately accused. “You are taking away our choice, you want to take away our ways just because you see us as something less!”

“Lord Yu told me everything!” Teal’c shouted back. “He told me about your plan, he told me about how you’ve already sold us all! There’s already a Ha’tak coming and soon we will all perish!”

“Lies! If we were sold, you are the one who-”

K’Tano didn’t manage to finish the sentence.

A glint of metal was all the warning there was before Orochimaru rushed forward and slashed. The Jaffa barely managed to jump away in the last second, the edge of the combat knife missing his skin by millimeters and got caught in the shirt.  
The fabric gave up easily. The blade went through it like there was no resistance at all, cutting the whole thing in half, barely missing flesh.

"A knife!" K’Tano shouted, shielding himself with an arm. "Such a dishonorable thing to bring into a duel!"

"Oh, I'm not the only one who brought something bad with me," Orochimaru chuckled. “You are missing a certain interesting bit of anatomy all the Jaffa are supposed to have.”

Jack blinked, not sure what she was talking about. But then his eyes were drawn to what everyone else was already staring at.  
Despite trying his hardest, K’Tano wasn’t able to cover his abdomen with what was left of his short. His flat, unmarked abdomen.

“I’ll be damned...!” a human? It seemed impossible, not with the endurance and physical prowess K’tano had demonstrated, which left only one option.

“You are not-” Teal’c gasped. His shoulders slumbered in shock, the fury melted off his face, leaving it sweaty and ashen. “You couldn’t be!”

K’Tano was trapped, surrounded from every side by Jaffa, who slowly were realizing what exactly stood in from of them and he knew it.  
His face twisted and he bared his teeth in a parody of a smile.

“You are all going to die here, Shol’va!” He raised his staff-weapon, pointindomly; no matter where he was going to shot, he was going to hit someone.

Before Jack managed to curse, before the Jaffa managed to react, it was all suddenly over.

In one swift movement, Orochimaru twisted the Goa'Uld on his knees and then a blade glinted once again in the sun, before it sank deep into the flesh.  
K’Tano gasped, eyes widening, like the blade deep in the neck was the biggest surprise in his life-

Then those same eyes shone with the unmistakable light.

Orochimaru with a well practiced ease shifted her knife, widening the cut.  
Without any hesitation, she pushed her fingers inside the wound, digging through the bloody tissues until she found what she was looking for.

She let go of the corpse, letting it slip on the ground, while the long, snake-like parasite still locked in the iron grip on her fingers  slithered out of the body, dead and covered in the dark mix of red and bluish blood.  
Jack stared at her as much as the Jaffa did, through his horror came from the sheer gore, not because now there was an undeniable proof that the person who they believed in, who they trusted was just another monster.

He couldn't even imagine how it felt.

Orochimaru had no such problems.

"I'm keeping it," she declared, raising her hand a little higher. The long tail of the dead creature rocked miserably in the air, dripping slowly, spilling little drops of blood on the sand of the training ground as it moved.

“She had brought a knife into the sacred duel!”  Someone shouted.

“It was not a duel between Jaffa in the first place!” Master Bra’tac regained his composure first and stepped into the ring before the mood changed into something unpleasant. “She merely discovered and killed a false god.”

Orochimaru raised the dead symbiont and looked at it, one eyebrow quirked, face unimpressed.

“Puny for a god,” she stated after a moment of consideration.

Bra’tac glared at her. He looked like there wasn’t anything he wanted more in his life than to kick her, but it sadly wasn’t the time for pleasures.

"Shouldn't you people have other worries?" Jack groaned. "Like, getting the hell away from here before Yu or whoever is going to show up and show us his fun fireworks?"

The crowd stood still and stared in a horrified silence, as the absolute proof of the betrayal was right in front of them.

And more than that, Jack realized, eyeing Orochimaru.

Technically speaking - or at least according to Bra’tac -  she wasn't cheating. It meant that someone who wasn't a Jaffa, a complete outsider, just won the right to command them. And she won it from someone who wasn't Jaffa after all, which definitely was going to turn the moods sour right after the Jaffa finally accept that it was the reality they were living in.

"We cannot stay here!" Teal'c shouted. "Lord Yu is going to show up at any moment. He send me here to be but a herald of our doom!"

The Jaffa didn't look like they were to budge from this place anytime soon.

However the first shock finally passed and the crowd started to shuffle, whispers and steps filling the space between them, tension rising as quickly as the voices did.

"We are not going to leave!" someone declared and a few voices shouted in agreement. "This is the place we have build for ourselves and we are going to fight for it!"

"Then you are going to perish," Teal'c stated grimly. "Do you truly think lord Yu is going to bring an army to the ground instead of simply filling this place with fire?"

"You were invited here by K’tano!” a voice rose up somewhere from the crowd. "How can we trust you!"

Jack winced as all the hell broke loose. The Jaffa worked well while they were organized, with one person telling them what to do. Without someone in command, they were on a completely foreign ground.  
He, licked his lips, trying to decide if he should piss them off enough to do something that made sense in spite of him, or should he try to solve this mess in some other way.  
The Jaffa were already paranoid enough to suspect Teal'c of working with the System Lords-

There was a soft brush against his his and Jack whirled around before even he realized what was going on, instincts kicking in at light speed.  
Still, too slow.

Orochimaru already managed to get a hold on his pistol and the one of a kind, bone-freezing click told him that she somehow managed to deal with the safety using only one hand.

"What are you-" he hissed at her.

Orochimaru, completely ignoring rim, raised the gun high into the air and pulled the trigger.

Silence followed the thunderous and foreign sound of a gunshot, all attention suddenly centered on the source of this noise.  
Orochimaru handed him back the gun, not bothering with putting the safety back on.

"The Goa'Uld are not going to care if you serve them or not," she said calmly. "They will simply kill you all if given a chance. Now, you have only two choices: to roll over and let them slaughter you or to get away while you can."

"Are you trying to order us around?" one of the Jaffa stepped forward. "You, an outsider, who knows nothing about us? Isn't this" he moved his hand in a wide gesture. "Not enough for you? Are you going to take away even the honorable death from us?"

"There's no honor in death," Orochimaru stated coldly. "Being dead means only than you no longer are able to fight."

Jack found himself nodding.

"However you are right, I know nothing about you or your history and now is clearly not the time to start learning," Orochimaru continued, her voice strong even when she lowered herself to pick up the training weapon that belonged to the dead Goa'Uld.

Without a moment to spare, she handed it to Bra'tac.

"However this man knows about you and your cause and spend years fighting for you."

Bra'tacs eyes widened slightly, but otherwise, he managed to keep his composure, despite the unexpected situation and didn’t turn it into a game of hot potato. He looked like he wanted to, but he was too aware of how little time they had.

Orochimaru stepped aside, giving the Jaffa all the space he could need and then some.  
For someone who was sticking out that much, she managed to disappear in the crowd fairly easily, just to pop up right next to him.

"Tell someone to dial a safe place," Orochimaru hissed at Jack when Bra'tac started talking.

"You think this is going to work?" Jack whispered back.

"I doubt that many people feel suicidal all at once."

"Oh, you would be surprised," Jack winced. "But sure, we visited quite a bit of uninhabited worlds, that's going to be a neat start."

Luckily, Daniel wasn't too far away. Wasn't feeling like discussing things either.

Major tagged along with him.

“Let’s just hope they’re fast enough to dial first,” Jack muttered, fingers tapping a nervous staccato against the side of his gun.

“What will happen if they don’t?”

“The Goa’Uld like to dial up the world they’re about to destroy,” Jack replied. “So there’s no way to escape.”

“Ah,” Orochimaru nodded. “Makes sense.”

Jack stared at her for a short moment. This was… not the reaction he expected. Then again, the moment he thought he knew her fairly well, she managed to jump out of the closet he didn’t even knew was there, break a thick steel bar on her knee and almost take over an army and all that in the span of just few days. Why was he even expecting anything?

"We are not let the false Gods kill us today!" Bra'tac shouted. "We will return and we will return in strength no one had seen before, but to do so, we must leave now!"

Somehow, reluctantly, the Jaffa started to shift and move and Jack couldn’t be happier that something was finally happening. For a group of people used to facing death, they sure were not that fast on the uptake when it came to incoming dangers.

They marched towards the Stargate and Jack counted steps, trying to estimate how long they had before something popped out of the hyperspace right over their heads and turn the pleasant woodworks into hell.  
The answer was - not much.

The Goa'Uld orbital Cannon both did and didn't sound like the Earth-made bombs when it hit the ground. Oddly enough, the sound was lower, appeared slower but the moment when the blast hit the ground was exactly the same. A mind-numbing explosion, tearing town the ground open, spraying the surrounding with dirt and stones, the sheer force of the hit pushing people off theirs feet.

This time, they were lucky. The warning came early enough for the Stargate to be already activated when the panicked mass of people showed by them.  
Just a few steps and they will be light-years away perfectly safe and only slightly roughed up.

Jack's knees instinctively bend when yet another blast hit not too far away from the Stargate.  
His mind instantly switched gears, instincts and training taking over. He was evacuating people from the dangerous area. It involved pushing and patting and elbowing and screaming over the explosions, everything just to make people go the right way, to not turn into a chaotic mess, to not die-

The Stargate hummed, shining with brilliant blue light. Major and a few of the Jaffa were kneeling by the ancient ring, aiming at the sky, while Daniel was standing on the podium, sending people offworld and keeping the wormhole open.

“Danny, go through and make sure they don't clog it!” Jack shouted.

“But-” the archeologist protested.

“No buts!” Jack barked. “Teal'c, take over!”

They needed someone on the other side, just to make sure things we're going swiftly, to avoid getting people injured just because the crowd on the other side of the gates was too chaotic and their team worked together like a charm, having experience in situations just like this one.

Teal'c swiftly moved forward and took Daniel's place.

The stream of people seemed to be never ending, going on and on despite how swiftly they’ve managed to send the people offworld, there was a still a great amount of them waiting.  
Jack could taste the tension rising with every passing second.

A cloud of dark smoke was spreading fast, tasting acidic and of ash, as the place the Jaffa treated like their home burned, the air around it filled with the flashes of vicious light falling from the sky and hitting the ground with enough of a force to make the ground shook.

Fucking Yu, Jack thought pushing another person forward. He either hoped that a honorable battle would held them all in the camp and a surgical strike would be enough to wipe them all out, or was giving them a mockery of a chance to escape.

It was just a matter of time before the attention shifts towards the Stargate and everybody knew it. Despite all the training and bravery, despite their best tries, people started crowding, trying to squeeze through, the thought of survival pushing the ability to think further and further back.

Jack felt it before he saw it.

“Everybody down!” he shouted and dropped on the ground, covering his head.

There was a blinding flash, a deafening explosion, a push of burning-hot air so strong it felt like it was going to push him off the ground and this happened all at once, instantly followed by the rain of stones and sand and splinters catching fire in the mid-air.

Jack pushed himself on all four and then up, grabbed someone by the arm and shoved them towards the Stargate. He wasn’t sure if he was screaming or not, his ears were filled with with the high-pitched white noise ringing, his mouth tasted like grass and dirt and smoke and he fucking hated diplomatic missions.

Another flash of an energy flash pushed him off his feet and he was staggering like a drunktard, thanking the god that the aiming from the orbit sucked and oh, he was running out of the people to push forward, which was a good thing and he hoped that it all took less than half an hour because otherwise he would be screwed -

“Are you fi-” Jack asked, but stopped in the middle of sentence, voice sounding unnatural and dull in his own ears.  
He got so used to Orochimaru breathing up his neck and acting like a reasonable, trained person that he didn't even check where she was. He fully expected her to stay close to him and she just… didn't.

“Where the hell are you?!” he growled through his teeth and looked around. Tried to. The ground was smoking, there was so much dust in the air it was hard to breathe. The trees were on fire and the after wave following each blast spreaded the fire further and further, spraying sparks and burning bits and chunks of wood everywhere.

Finally, he noticed a familiar shape in the smoke.

"Oh bloody hell!" Jack groaned and turned on his heel.

He sprinted right back to Orochimaru, who was still standing like stone statue, gaping at the sky.

"Come on, you dimwit!" Jack growled and grabbed the woman, pulling her close.

Damn, she was like a pile of brick, barely budging from were she was standing.

"These are not the fireworks you want to watch!" He shouted and pulled stronger, wrapping hand around her waist to get a better hold.

Finally, they were making some steps!

Meanwhile the sky over them was shining with a barrage of fire, while ground exploded in clouds of dirt and splinters.

"I've expected to at least be able to see the ship," Orochimaru suddenly said, looking straight at him.

"Well, we don't get what we want, that's life! Now move already!"

She nodded and finally, finally moved.

 

xxx

 

His ears were still ringing, there was sand between his teeth no much how hard he tried to spit it out, but besides those mild annoyances Jack wasn't feeling bad with himself.

Sure, the supposedly easy, diplomatic mission ended up as a complete mess, but they have managed to escape the planet alive. Considering all that happened, it was quite the achievement.

Jack stretched and looked at the odd horizon; Daniel sure did put some thoughts into picking the planet to escape to.

It was… dark. That word definitely fit it best. The grass and leaves, it all had a dark red, almost black color and the sky was equally grim, despite the huge, red star covering what seemed to be half of the skies.  
Carter tried to explain the reasons behind the gothic color palette the first time they've arrived - it was something about photosynthesis and light, red dwarfs and temperature. Lots of words to describe a place that was perfect for hide and seek.

There weren't even big animals out here, at least they didn't manage to bump into any during the few weeks the labs went crazy about this place - just a bunch of small critters with plate-sized eyes that reflected light in the most creepy way.  
The darkness had one more good side - it allowed them all to have some privacy. Since the visibility was so poor, the brave Jaffa could spill some tears and break a little without anyone noticing.

Jack was just fine with giving everyone time to breathe. He needed to unwind himself. Make some faces and curse all the dumb people under his breath.  
But of course, when he wandered a bit away from others just to avoid awkwardness if he stumbled into someone, he just hand to walk right into a private conversation.

"Are you here to mock me?"

Jack stiffened, recognizing the voice.

It was Bra'tac and he didn't sound like himself at all. It was something between deeply agitated and plain broked.Not that Jack was surprised, really.

All the Jaffa were following blindly someone who was just like the being that imprisoned them for centuries, swallowing all the lies and beautiful words.  
It was a shitty situation all around and definitely not a conversation he wanted to eavesdrop on, but here he was.

"Mock you?" the second voice belonged to Orochimaru. "Why would I do such a thing?"

"You have all but named what was happening and yet I was blind," Bra'tac admitted bitterly.

Jack chewed on his lip, wondering if he  should walk away.  
He was sure that if he tried to move, they would both notice him being there and listening on and it would turn the already difficult relationship into a whole new shitshow.  
So he just stood there, still like a statue, waiting for them to finish, imagining showing fingers into his ears.

"I still don't see why you expect me to mock you," Orochimaru said. "You have instinctively followed a familiar pattern, one that you subconsciously recognized as something right and safe. "

"And is that not a greatest proof of our failure?" Bra'tac almost laughed. "We like to think about ourselves as free and yet!"

"Breaking conditioning takes time," Orochimaru stated. "Especially since it was how many generations since it began?"

"You sound like you know a lot."

Orochimaru chuckled.

"For the longest time, my world was a very cold, very unforgiving place," she said softly and Jack's ears immediately perked up. This was something important.

"It was bathed in blood in the name of silly ideals like the Will of Fire," Orochimaru continued softly. "We were taught from the youngest age possible how there was no other way but by drawing blood and killing in the name of the place we were born into."

"What are you trying to tell me? That we are similar? That we share some sort of a connection?" Bra'tac snorted.

"What I'm trying to say is that if you want to be free of your past you need to evolve," she said. "But it's not going to feel right for the longest time, it's not going to feel natural."

"How did you change then?"

"There was little choice - it was either uniting ourselves or perish," Orochimaru explained. "So we've fought together all the people who know each other from the opposite sides of the battlefield, united in the pure need of survival."

"After that... I honestly wasn't expecting the peace to last long," there was a smile in Orochimaru's voice. "It was more of a scientific curiosity for me."

"I assume it did not end?"

"I didn't," Orochimaru confirmed. "It felt odd and nobody had any idea how to  deal with it. Over time, we grew comfortable with the change. Even I."

"Even you?" Bra'tac actually chuckled. "What are you then, some kind of a war mongrel?"

"Something like that, I guess" Orochimaru sighed. "Something like that."  


xxx

  


"Colonel, can you please explain to me, why Orochimaru walked into the base holding something that looked like a dead Goa'Uld?"

Was the first question Jack heard once he stepped out of the Stargate. Honestly, he couldn't expect anything else, with Orochimaru vigorously marching away, ignoring everyone but her target, with the long, white Goa'Uld tail wiggling miserably with her every step.

Jack sighed heavily, because of course, the woman decided to leave the explaining to other people - namely him - and went to do whatever she fancied to to at the moment.  
To cut open the nasty, dead thing, most probably.

"She... wants to dissect it while it's still fresh, General."

"How did she even-?"

"This is a long story," Jack sighed deeply. "Be glad she didn't get an army. She was about this close to getting herself one."

General Hammond pinched the bridge of his nose.  
Then, after a long moment, he looked up at Jack, his expression deadly serious.

Jack straightened out of pure reflex. Whatever was going to say next, it was going to be important.

"I'm afraid even an army wouldn't be enough to solve our problems. Come with me."

There was a quip on the tip of Jacks tongue waiting to pop out, something about how they always were facing a new kind of trouble right after getting rid of something bothersome.  
But it wasn't the time for dumb jokes, not with the general being dead serious like that even before they climbed up the stairs to his office.

"What happened?" Jack asked instead, the moment the doors clicked closed behind them.

General Hammond sighed heavily and moved towards the desk. Every step was heavier that the previous one.

"Sit down, Colonel."

The invitation was clearly meant for him to sit down in front of the computer, behind the desk.

Jack obediently did, waiting for the bomb to drop. And, well, enjoying the chair. Just as the gossip said, it was ridiculously comfortable and if not for the circumstances, Jack would bounce, just a little, to fully enjoy the comfort of it.

However it was how it was and the general was already clicking the play icon, so Jack had no other choice but to concentrate on whatever was in front of him.  
The video was shaky, the image painfully unfocused and they needed to switch for a better model yesterday because the quality was also shit, but despite it all...  
Despite it all Jack saw a person spitting out a stream of fire that grew and erupted into a huge ball of flames, hungrily swallowing the terrain beneath.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, oh this chapter!
> 
> It was fighting me from the very beginning, but I've managed to finally achieve the victory!
> 
> Yep, I've totally dug out an episode of Stargate and then completely ignored it, writing Orochimaru in. This fic is a very self indulgent and I liked the episode, even if it was sorta kinda rushed a lot.  
> It also gave me a chance to have some more fun with tossing Orochimaru at different people and see their reactions.  
> And sort of stealing Teal'c fight. It was one of the thing that kept me from finishing the chapter, because I felt really guilty about robbing him - he fully deserved to punch K'Tano's shiny teeth out.
> 
> And yes, Orochimaru spend a third of this chapter walking around with a very dead snake-like thing in her hand and that includes the surprisingly nice conversation with Bra'tac.
> 
> And the cliffhanger... well, my lovelies.   
> Guess who the ninja is.


	11. Chapter 10: Orochimaru of the Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta (02 XII 2018): The amazing N7JimJam! Thank You so much!

Chapter 10: Orochimaru of the Three

 

"What," Jack croaked, staring at the TV screen long after the video was over, unable to move. "What the fuck. I... that’s not just some dumb movie, is it?"

Oh, he hoped so much that the old general was just shitting him for once, that it was all some sort of elaborate joke trying to teach Teal'c or some other Jaffa what a sense of humor looked like, but he knew George Hammond too much to believe it.

The man wouldn't waste time on something like this, so Jack was looking at something real and oh god, it was horrible.

"I'm afraid it was not," General Hammond said gravely.

"This... I don't even know how to react to that."

"Our current theory is that whoever the carrier is, he was somehow connected to the Ascended beings."

Jack nodded.

It was hard to forget about the crazy monk that created fire in the palm of his hand or the ball of buzzing lightning that destroyed a bunch of well trained soldiers just because they were in the way.  
There were unexplained things in this galaxy, powerful things that defied his wildest imaginations. But knowing and actually seeing something like that... it was a whole world of difference.

"So, someone like that monk or the kid got snaked?" Jack ran fingers through his hair. "It... it could happen. I think. I have no other explanation. Still. Fuck."

"There's more."

"...I sure hope you started with the worst things possible, general."

"Doctor Jackson managed to recognize some of the symbols on the uniforms of the surrounding Jaffa and the robes of the Goa'Uld," General Hammond started and looked at him, searching for... something. Jack wasn't sure what, but he sure did not like it.

"I'm listening."

"They are similar to the ones Major Carter managed to recover from the crystal hard drive."

The realization didn't come immediately after hearing the words.

It creeped upon him slowly, ambushing him in his confusion and then exploding around him with enough force to make his heart stop.  
Cold sweat broke on his forehead and travelled down the line of his spine, sending shudders through the whole body, while the inside of his mouth dried went dry as a desert.  
It could still be a coincidence, an assumption they made because all of the puzzle pieces seemed to fit together too well...

"The Goa'uld is hanging out in someone from Orochimaru's world," Jack said slowly, "it could be... she’s mentioned more than once that her people united because there was some other sort of aliens out there, so powerful that it was either fighting together or dying. It could be one of these guys."

"It would explain the need to research the aliens," Jack muttered, thinking back to everything Orochimaru ever said about her homeworld. "And why they united just to survive fighting them."

Still. When hearing about power, Jack imagined a more... realistic form of power. Spaceships and an army and technology - not this.

“Should I… we should talk to her,” he said, licking his lips nervously.

"First things first, Colonel."  General Hammond sighed heavily.

"While what you've just seen is troubling, we have no way of dealing with it nor a way of finding that System Lord," he continued. "Right now, we have to deal with the situation on hand."

Jack nodded.

That mess of a diplomatic mission had produced an insane amount of work that needed to be done as soon as possible. Preferably yesterday, but Carter hadn’t managed to figure out how to travel in time yet.

Aside from the pages upon pages of mission reports that he needed to write - and reprimands he would likely receive for his behavior - Jack knew that they had to do something about the Rebel Jaffa, suddenly homeless and still stuck on the dark planet.  
They couldn't just leave them to fend for themselves even if they were sort of assholish.

Obviously, the SGC was unable to house hundreds of suddenly homeless people - the mountain was not big enough for them all to fit in.  
Their outworld base was just a small outpost, more focused on biological sciences not housing people.

"Teal'c and Daniel are going to go back and help Master Bra'tac organize things and keep an ear out for the mood as soon as they go through the medical check out and rest," General Hammond explained. “But we still need to at least try to at least find a temporary home for all these people.”

“Yeah,” Jack nodded. “The dark planet kinda sucks.”

It was dark, it was gloomy, it was depressing in all sorts of ways and he was pretty sure they had managed to visit it on a good day. He didn’t want to know what it looked like when the weather was shitty.

“Not many people would be willing to take them under their roof,” he winced. “Previously people were afraid of them and now… they sure were loud under K'Tano. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one System Lord wasn’t looking for revenge.”

“We need to send out teams to warn our allies about this new system lord anyway,“ the general sighed. “I doubt that anyone would agree and I certainly don’t want my teams to push any people into agreement, but they can at least try.”

“Aaand I know it all before everyone else because....?” Jack asked.

“Because I want you to have as cool head as possible,” General said. “Orochimaru might be talented, but she seems to be very… whimsical. If we’re right and there indeed is some connection between her world and this new Goa’uld, I want you to keep an eye on her.”

Jack nodded.  
The situation was serious enough that one person flipping out would be enough to turn the entire base into a bunch of headless chickens, running in circles in wild panic and accomplishing absolutely nothing.

  
A few days ago he would say that Orochimaru was way too reserved, too well disciplined to create that sort of trouble, but just a few hours ago she won herself an army.  
Sure, she gave it to Bra’tac, but still. She got an army just because she felt like punching in the teeth of its previous commander.

“I’ll do what I can,” Jack promised. “I’ll also pop in at Daniel’s place, tell him to write down the warnings in a way that’s not going to accidentally offend people out there again.”

The Stargate did wonders when it came to understanding words in an unfamiliar language and even getting the grammar right, but apparently the magical abilities of the ancient stone ring ran out at idioms. Because of that, there had been many, many mishaps between the SGC teams and people from other planets.  Sometimes it was hilarious but usually it just evolved into something very ugly very quickly.

“Try to hurry,” General Hammond nodded, “I’m sure doctor Fraiser is already annoyed at me for breaking protocol.”

“Gotta do what you gotta do,” Jack shrugged, “I’ll take the blame for this one, I appreciate the warning.”

He really did.

The image of a man spitting fire was still alive in his head as he walked through the familiar corridors of the underground base.

Spaceships and bombs, aliens and bombardments, but this, this looked like magic.  


xxx

 

When Jack finally decided he had no other choice but to drag himself to the infirmary, it was sort of late.

Janet Fraiser did not look amused at all. She had her hands crossed over her chest, a serious frown on her face.

"I suppose you're not going to let me take my shower first?"

"What I should do is file an official complaint," she stated coldly, "for your open disregard for safety protocols."

"Alright then, no shower," Jack nodded. "I’m all yours, stink included."

She still looked unimpressed.

"Okay, my bad," Jack sighed. "I should've stopped here right after I was done talking with the general in the gate room, but I decided to do this and that on my way here..."

"By this point you really should know better," she sighed, "off with your shirt."

"Gotta warn you, it's going to get dusty in here!"

"I'll let you borrow some paper pajamas later," Janet snickered.

"Oh har har," Jack muttered. "So, you've checked everyone else already?"

"Luckily nobody else followed your example. Why?"

"Did Orochimaru mention that she got into a little bit of a fight?"

"Well, if you're worried don't be, it's just a bruise."

"A bruise," Jack slowly repeated after her.

"Why?" Janet furrowed her brow.

"Did she mention that she got that bruise by breaking a staff weapon over her knee?"

Janet slowly blinked.

"You are... not joking," she finally said.

"I'm not," Jack sighed. "...did she walk in here with that dead snake in her hand?"

"She did," Janet nodded, her facial expression suddenly shifting to something Jack could only describe as satisfied.

“You two had fun with it, didn’t you?”

“Sadly after all this time it wasn’t in stellar condition,” she sighed. “But the blood vessels were mostly intact, so we injected it with a polimer-” she sighed, noticing his growing confusion. “In a few days we will have a full map of the Goa’uld bloodstream.”

“Oh,” Jack blinked, “cool, I guess?”

“Yes,” she agreed with him, “we also managed to take some tissue samples.”

“I’m glad you two can bond over butchering a snake! I really am! Ow!”

Janet smirked at him, syringe in hand. It was filled with his blood, because of course she picked his moment of distraction to steal a sample.

“If you’ve picked up something offworld after all I’m going to have your head.” She declared with a sweet smile. “I’ll have the results in a few hours. Off you go. Unless you want those pajamas.“

“I’ll figure out a way to live without them,” he declared. “So, no explanation for why it’s a tiny bruise instead of, I don’t know, broken leg? Some cracks at least?”

“I honestly don’t know right now,” she sighed.

“Well, I guess those guys doing karate and breaking bricks with their bare hands aren’t all black and blue,” Jack shrugged. “But I’ve never done that, so I can’t really tell.“

It was yet another thing he wanted to ask Orochimaru about, but that list was too long already and there were way more important things to ask about than her ability to snap metal pipes over her knee.

At first, Jack considered going straight to Orochimaru’s room, but after taking a quick sniff he grimaced and decided it wouldn’t be the smartest idea. A day spent running around and then running away had its consequences and dust wasn’t the only thing sticking to him.

 

xxx

 

There was maybe something like a second between the moment he knocked and pushed the doors open.

Jack didn't feel guilty at all, the image of a man - a Goa'uld - spitting fire and turning a small town into a fiery inferno still too vivid inside his head to let him feel anything but determination.

It all felt so surreal. The shaky video, walking down the corridor, entering - more like barging into - the room, sort of like he was still watching something recorded with a camera, only it was his own body walking around while his brain was just sort of sitting there, dumbfounded and unable to comprehend what the hell was going on.

Orochimaru was sitting on the floor, feet bare, leaning against the bedframe with her legs comfortably crossed in a very unladylike manner. Her head was tilted back, so the little girl on the bed could have the better access to all the hair.

Himawari seemed to be completely focused on the task of brushing the long, luxurious hair.  A large amount of colorful hair pins, hair ties and other accessories were laid out on the blanket next to her in a bright, shining mess of glitter, flowers and butterflies.  
When did she even manage to gather all this stuff?

Jack had barged in, planning to just grab Orochimaru and run all the way back to the conference room with her in tow... and that was pretty much where his plan ended.

But this peaceful scene...

Jack didn't want to disturb it, at least not like that. He didn't want to scare Himawari, who was precious and absolutely concentrated on her task in a way that only little kids were able to do.

Whatever was going on, she deserved to stay oblivious to all of it.

Should he back away for now? Jack wondered.

He could hunt down Daniel instead and ask if he’d managed to pinpoint who the new Goa'uld was supposed to be, or maybe go and bug Carter - see if she’d figured out the science behind breathing  fire-

"Jack."

He didn't jump when he heard his name, he wasn't startled at all! He expected Orochimaru to know he was in the room before he even walked in, so it would be ridiculous to get spooked over that.

Orochimaru looked up at him, face blanker than usual. She didn't move from her spot, patiently waiting for a response, making the situation become more and more awkward with every passing second.

"You kids seems to be having fun there!" Jack blurted out.

Orochimaru arched an eyebrow at him.

Himawari gasped, finally noticing they had an intruder inside.

"Jack!" her face brightened with smile. "Hi!"

"Hi, yourself, squirt!" Jack grinned back. "You care if I borrow your friend for a bit?"

"Aw!" Her shoulders slumbered a bit as she frowned at him." Do you have to?"

"I do.  Sorry."

"I promise you can have another go at my hair later," Orochimaru turned around and gave her a reassuring smile before standing  up and stretching.

Calm, collected and still keeping her face more blank than usual.

"Can you find something to do, while I'm off?"

Himawari made a face at both of them and jumped off the bed, heading for the desk where a few books, a sketchbook and crayons were laying in colorful chaos.  
She left the mess of hair accessories behind, untouched and messy.  Oh boy, looks like someone was a little mad at them.  
It was kind of adorable, even if she was acting like a spoiled little princess.

Jack took a glance at Orochimaru, but she didn’t even smile.  That wasn’t a good sign.

He furrowed his brow.

"What's up?" Jack asked immediately after Orochimaru closed the doors behind them. "You're doing that ninja thing with your face."

Her expression became slightly sour.

"Am I that obvious?"

"Happens to the best," Jack shrugged. "If it's something you would rather not talk about-"

"My son likes to play with my hair," Orochimaru said with a small sigh, "well, once he grew out of pulling it."

"You serious?"

"It was the first thing he did," Orochimaru carefully brushed fingers through her hair and moved it aside. "He was just sitting in my arms and then the little brat goes and nearly headbutts me."

Jack shook his head with a chuckle.

The mental image was definitely amusing.

"I'm sorry," he sighed, "we're doing everything we can, but it's not as much as we would like it to be."

She had every right to miss her kid, her world, everything.

Jack sure did when he got stuck offworld for months. Every single day felt like forever and with every passing minute his heart felt like breaking.  
Orochimaru was probably no different, except she had to keep acting like everything was hunky-dory because there was a kid stranded along with her.

"So," he started quietly as they walked down the corridors towards the lift, "I don't want to alarm you, but we've found something that fits your history."

Orochimaru narrowed her eyes.

"Which part of it?" she asked carefully.

"The part about someone you all had to unite against to survive," Jack couldn't help but wince. It sounded weird, to say it out loud and the amount of dumb movies and half-remembered quotes stuck inside his head wasn't helping any. The situation was just like something taken straight of a cheesy movie with a ridiculous, magical villain.

Orochimaru looked at him with a small furrow of her brow.

Her sharp yellow eyes bored into him, the only splash of color in the dim corridor.

Feels a bit like being vivisected, Jack thought swallowing. If it was possible to do it with just a look, then Orochimaru definitely had it down.

In a literal blink of an eye the moment is gone; the hum of people moving back and forth is back, the light and colors return to the walls and floors.

"Is this why you came for me" Orochimaru asked with her usual smile, "confirmation?"

"Yeah, that! And some other things too." Jack agreed. "See, we might figure out how to get you guys home. Faster than waiting for the hard drive."

"Isn't Samantha working on that?" Orochimaru asked, blinking slowly, mild surprise on her face.

"Yep," Jack nodded, "her and our tech team. And the eggheads from the linguistic group. I think they're fighting over the programming language."

He wasn't lying. The two groups of people were constantly fighting, even in the mess hall. Carter constantly looked torn between tearing her hair out and stabbing someone and Danny just sighed in resignation when anyone else asked.

They couldn't work separate, because if one team didn't understand the programming language, then the other couldn’t figure out the words without help.

“Oh,” Orochimaru brightened. “I understand now.”

“You guys have computers too, don’t you?”

She glanced at him and smirked, fully aware why he was poking around so much.

The corridor was long and any chance to learn something more about their world was too tempting.

“We do,” she agreed, “I can use them, but when something breaks I’m afraid I’m at something of a loss.”

“Same here,” Jack sighed, “sometimes stuff like that makes me feel really old.”

“Sometimes it feels like the world changes in a blink of an eye,” Orochimaru agreed with a soft smile. “But this is a good thing, growth and evolution. It keeps things interesting!”

“You talk like an old man, you know that?” Jack chuckled.

“Shouldn’t I?”

Damn, Jack really needed silly to unwind. Only after his shoulders started relaxing at the friendly teasing had he noticed how tense he was.

He wondered if Orochimaru needed something like that to distract her too or if she was only indulging him.

“Are we in big trouble?” he asked with a heavy sigh. “If this is real, I mean?”

Orochimaru looked at him from under her eyelashes, taking her time before finally giving him an answer.

“If it truly is what forced my world to unite, then you should keep as away from it as it is possible.” She finally said, “I’m serious. Don’t go near it.”

“Can’t do that,” Jack snickered helplessly, “I might be scared shitless, but I’m not going to hide under my bed and cover my ears like that one monkey.”

"Isn't it risky though?” She stared him down without blinking, yellow eyes intent. “Hunting down someone powerful enough to distress you like that?"

"I guess," Jack shrugged, "that's just how we roll."

That and they were on the clock here. They either deal with the new danger while it's just lurking and testing the waters, or they have to face it when it's at the peak of its power.

They couldn't just let the new guy take over the galaxy, breathing fire or not. One powerful Goa'uld was way worse than a bunch of Goa'uld that were too occupied with fighting each other to concentrate on the rest of the galaxy.

Orochimaru quirked her eyebrow in amusement, but appeared satisfied with the answer.

When they finally reached the conference room, there was a spider web of cables waiting, connecting the computer by the general’s seat to the projector, ready to replay the recording.

They weren't alone in the room; a short glance told him that the good General had the same opinion on what should be done with the new, fire-spitting Goa'uld as Jack did.

There was Major Benton who led SG-9, their diplomatic team along with other commanding officers of their exploration teams that were currently planetside. Including the two men who were supposed to be off-duty and Lieutenant Lorne, who looked rather uncomfortable with bruises and scratches all over his body.

They still looked better than Daniel, who seemed to forget that people needed regular sleep.

At least he wasn't trying to continue his work here.

"Colonel," General Hammond nodded at them, "Orochimaru. Please, take your seats."

Jack greeted the general back and slipped into the seat next to Carter.

She gave him a small smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Did she see the video too, or was it just the nervous anticipation, the disturbed faces of people who already knew?

"So, is this all of us, or is anyone else gonna pop in late?" Jack asked.

With the current crowd it looked like they were going to look for the Goa'uld, not figure out his tricks or prepare the more combat-oriented teams for the potential dangers out there.

"For now," General Hammond nodded, "what we need to establish is the current territory of this Goa'uld and how fast he's expanding."

He gestured towards Carter, who smiled tightly before talking.

"We’re going to use the planet where Lieutenant Lorne managed to record the Goa'uld as our starting point," Major explained, "We have a list of nearby planets already prepared."

Jack glanced at Lorne. Now he knew why the poor guy was so beat up and wasn't jealous at all. The recording was bad enough, but to actually see it with his own eyes... He wouldn’t be surprised if the poor sap was going to some serious nightmares.

"We will also visit our allies and collect whatever tales and gossip they’ve managed to collect by talking to merchants and visitors," General continued. "Under no circumstances are you to apprehend the enemy or provoke a confrontation. If there's a risk of a confrontation, retreat immediately."

"With all due respect, sir," Benton started carefully, "it'll hardly be an effective tactic to scout the enemy if we're to retreat at the mere sight of them."

"Trust me, you don't want that confrontation to happen," Lorne said. He looked nervous, like he was fighting hard to keep the corner of his mouth from twitching.

"You were there and managed to return." Benton pointed out, "The whole team, all of you barely scratched."

"That wasn't because we escaped," Lorne shook his head, "it was because the Goa'uld decided to let us live."

"What, you're telling us that he was showing off?"

"He can spit fire and a lot of it," Lorne groaned, "what reason does he have to be discreet?"

"It's a kind of intimidation tactic," Daniel explained, "The Goa'uld in question is building up his reputation by performing impossible feats and letting a handful of survivors live to tell the tale. He wants to be heard of and he wants to be feared."

"Okay..." Benton said slowly. "That sure is an original trick and all, but still. Sounds pretty close-ranged..." he mused. "All it takes to deal with that sort of weapon is a good sniper rifle. Or orbital bombardment if another Goa'uld gets to this guy first. You sure can't spit that far!"

"I give orders for reasons, Major and I like to think those are very good reasons," General Hammond interrupted before it turned into an argument. "Before you make up your mind about anything, I would like you to familiarize yourself with the tape."

They all nodded, bracing themselves for what was on the footage, with the exception of Lorne who just looked tired and resigned.

Jack shared his sentiment. How could you prepare to see an enemy like that? To imagine what could’ve happen if that enemy rose into power, reached out towards the Earth?

"You were already informed of the possibility, yes?" General Hammond turned his attention to Orochimaru.

She nodded, face completely unreadable.

"I would be glad to hear any input you have, even if it it turns out this isn’t something you're familiar with."

Even if it was something Orochimaru was completely unfamiliar with, she could still have some useful ideas. Or at least wouldn't feel so bad for being dragged all the way here just to hear some bad news, Jack idly mused.

He’d already seen the tape and doubted that he’d suddenly figure out how to deal with the new enemy after watching it again.

Instead, Jack decided to observe the people.

Benton looked skeptical, through Jack couldn't figure out if it was because of  the scary powerful Goa'uld or Orochimaru being of any use to them here.  
To be fair, not many among their alien friends were too helpful when it came to battle - the Tok'Ra liked to criticize and the rest either weren’t here or was making the perfect impression of an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

Others varied between curiosity and slight alarm, with Lorne continuing to look like someone had wiped the floor with him. The guy saw the whole thing up close and personal, after all.

Jack made a mental note to pick his brain at some point. Seeing and Experiencing, those were two vastly different things and he would be stupid to not reach out and try to better understand this Goa’uld.

From the corner of his eye, Jack saw Orochimaru.

As always, the woman was wearing a perfect poker face, hands comfortably resting on the table, fingers loosely knotted together. The dark tattoo on her wrist was impossible to miss, contrasting vividly with her white skin, the wide thick likes climbing up and circling around her forearm.

Lorne turned off the light, so the screen was more visible.

The electronics hummed quietly and filled the room with cold, bluish light before the hue changed.

The recording was shaky like found footage horror movie and the first few seconds were just shots of fire taken from afar, the image blurry and distorted.

The camera wasn't the best and took it's time to focus and whoever was filming - Lorne -  was probably trying to move away, which wasn’t helping any.

Jack winced. The projector sounded like it was getting close to the end of it's days, buzzing so loudly it felt like his ears were ringing. The too bright flashes and motion blur were migraine inducing.

After a few seconds, the image cleared enough to see something more than the too bright flames.

There was a hill, high and narrow and the fire travelled down the slope of it like a brilliant avalanche, only to explode in a ball of burning fury below.

"That’s s not how fire is supposed to work!" Someone complained, but Jack didn't pay any mind to it.

At the top of the hill where the line of fire originated, a person was standing, the Goa’uld who would declare himself a real god or something like it in the next few seconds.  
He was wearing dark red clothes, the loose fabric dancing wildly in the wind despite being heavily engraved with gold, visible even from far away.

The buzzing grew in strength, almost thunderous now.  
The hiss in Jack ears was powerful enough that it muffled every other sound; it was almost like his ears were blocked and he was hearing his own blood rushing through his veins.

Jack was about to cover his ears but stopped, his attention suddenly elsewhere.

Orochimaru's eyes were wide, irises thin like needles, her blank expression slowly morphing into something entirely different.  Something terrible.

Then there was a crack.

The projector flickered and darkened for a second, filling the room with darkness, before it turned back on, frozen on a blurry close-up at the Goa'uld; the person was built like a mountain, with a long mane of white hair.

The image flickered on and off, blinding bright, but even when it was on, the darkness didn't go anyway.

The shadows moved like they were alive, crawling up and down the walls, closing in on them, coming closer and closer, fearlessly reaching for the light.  The unbearable hissing noise grew louder and louder, like there were hundreds, no, thousands of snakes in the room with them.

Jack opened his mouth, only to discover that he couldn't speak, he couldn't breathe.  It was like something was physically squeezing his throat.  
Cold sweat dripped down his neck and forehead, heart was beating like it was about to burst free from his chest.   
Jack blinked, trying to made it all go away, but it didn't work; the room seemed to be sideways, surreal and terrifying and Orochimaru was standing.

She was like a giant, towering over them, her loose black hair like writhing shadows, snake-like and alive.  Her eyes were blazing and inhuman, expression warped into something terrifying and cruel.

What, Jack desperately tried to comprehend, what was going on?

He couldn't breathe, _he couldn't breathe_ and the others didn’t look like they were doing any better.

Daniel was grasping at his throat, eyes wide and scared, Benton was scratching at his collar, trying to peel off an invisible noose away from his skin, while Lorne, pasty-white, was slowly sliding down the wall.

Orochimaru was standing next to the projector now, just a few steps away from the General, who stared at her like he was seeing Death itself, unable to peel his eyes away from her.

Just how did she-

Jack didn't finish the thought.

He caught movement on his right; it was Teal'c, face drenched in sweat and a gun in his shaking hand, pointed at Orochimaru.

She turned her head slightly and her eyes widened, enough for the veins in the corner of it to be clearly visible.

He wanted to get away. He wanted to get away and hide, he wanted to be anywhere but here, but he couldn't move.  
Images were swirling in his head; a gun slowly turning in hand, pointing where no gun was supposed to point, trigger giving in under the pressure of a finger-

The pistol hit the ground with a small thud, almost completely muffled  by that awful hissing.

Teal'c stepped back, face ashen and death in his eyes.

Orochimaru turned back to General, looking down on the old man as the shadows whirled around her.

"WHY," she hissed venomously, the word barely recognizable as human speech,  "why is there a dead man on that screen?" Orochimaru demanded. Her voice, it was...like nails on a chalkboard, snakes burrowing into his brain through his ears.

Her eyes were burning with cold fury, inhuman voice thundering in their skulls.

Dear God, what monster had they let in?

"WHY IS JIRAIYA ALIVE?"

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So hi!  
> It took me awhile to cough this one up, didn't it?  
> My fault because I was musing over every little detail till the very last moment.  
> The words are not a very good tool to describe Orochimaru talking as a human-shaped bag of snakes instead of using his mouth. Or at least they weren't all that cooperative this time. 
> 
> You guys have no idea how much fun I had when someone decided to guess just who was the mysterious ninja... and I think you all felt for the fire jutsu. What a red, flaming herring!
> 
> But I needed Orochimaru to lose his shit instantly and the only person that could make that possible was definitely not an Uchiha.

**Author's Note:**

> So, hello there!  
> I'm usually not explaining stuff in the notes, but I think there is a certain part of this fic that would raise all sort of questions. So I've decided to explain it.
> 
> As you've probably noticed, Orochimaru's relationship with gender is... well. It is canon that at least at one point during the series he was walking around in a female body and was totally fine with it. Not too long ago it was also confirmed in Boruto manga, that Orochimaru likes to change the way he looks, switching between more male-ish version of himself and the very feminine-like looks from Boruto (at least according to the images.)  
> So. Jack deciding that this new person is a woman? Not a joke. Orochimaru is wearing what he finds more comfortable at the moment. I doubt that he gives a crap about pronouns either - whatever is fine, as long as his name is recognized and used correctly.
> 
> I also like to believe that he's currently using Zetsu as his body- either the same one he took over during the final part of the manga (Hashirama cells were supposed to regenerate easily, so it should withstand Orochimaru's presence inside much better than any human) or one he cloned for himself. It's much easier this way than pissing everyone by hunting down a powerful shinobi time after time.
> 
> Um, yeah. This is what I'm rolling with when writing Orochimaru.


End file.
